
Book-. M 7 /?^ 



T^A.'NVALi 



OP 



lUTUAL INSTRUCTION; 



CONSISTING OF 



DK, INTRODUCING IN COMMON SCHOOLS THE IMPROVED SYSTEM- 
ADOPTED IN THE BIONITORIAL SCHOOL, BOSTON. 



AVITH 



AN APPENDIX, 



TAINING SOME CONSIDERATIONS IN FAVOR OF THE MONITORIAL 
METHOD, AND A SKETCH OF ITS PROGRESS, 

EMBRACING 

VIEW OF ITS ADAPTATION TO INSTRUCTION IN ACADEMIE,?, 
PREPARATORY SEBIINARIES, AND COLLEGES. 



BY WILLIAM RUSSELL, 

£ditor of the American Journal of EducalJon. 



PUBLISHED BY WAIT, GREENE, AND' 
1826. 




LBioif 

.M7/1? 



DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT : 

District Clerk's Office. 

Be it Remembered, * that on the twenty-fifth day of September, 
A. D. 1826, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United 
States of A me rir a, William Rxjssell, of the said District, has de- 
posited in this office, tlie title of a book, the right whereof he claims as 
Author, in the word*' following to wit: 

'•Manual of Mutual Instruction; consisting of Mr. Fowle's Direc- 
tions for introducing in common schools the improved system adopted in 
the Monitorial School, Boston, with an Appendix, containing some consi- 
derations in favor of tie Monitorial method, and a sketch of its progress, 
embracing a view oi its adaptation to instruction in academies, prepar- 
atory seminaries, and colleges. By IViUium Russell, Editor of the 
American Journal of Education." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, 
" An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
maps, charts, and hooks, lo the authors and proprietors of such copies, 
during the times therein mentioned ; and also to an act entitled, '' An 
act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of 
learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the au- 
thors and proprietors of such copies, dming the tiujes therein mentioned ; 
and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and 
etching historical and other prints." 



ir\Tj\i \i^ i\\\'j^ ^ Cerk of he District 
JOHN v\ . DA V 1^1 < r. 7.,/ , ,, 

' ( of JYlassachusdls. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



Repeated calls having been made at the office of the Jour- 
nal of Education, for information concernini^ the system of 
mutual instruction, and for works calculated to assist teachers 
in introducing it, the following volume has been compiled 
with a view to suit these purposes. Mr. Fovvle's directions to 
instructors of common schools, have received the principal 
place in this Manual, as seemed due not less to their own prac- 
tical importance, than to the particular stage of education to 
which they apply. In the Appendix, the application of mon- 
itorial instruction to higher schools and to higher branches, has 
been exhibited in extracts from several recent publications, 
and other sources of intelligence. 

A larger vohnne, with a more systematic arrangement, might 
have done more justice to the theory of mutual instruction. — 
But the present publication will, it is hoped, be found suffi- 
ciently copious in facts and details, to aid the progress of 
practical improvement. 

The part of this Manual which applies to the introduction of 
the monitorial method in Colleges, is respeclfuliy submitted 
to instructers in such institutions, as a means i^f aidin^;; their 
exertions ; and, at the same time, of employing and gratitying, 
as well as of improving, the minds oi students. Patient exper- 
iment, however, can aione ieaij to an ultii^ate decision on the 
merits of the new system, wiih reference to college instruc- 
ti<)n in this country; am! the pian is merely sui^mitted as de- 
serving of a trial. The quesiiou 'o be c'nswpr^d is, at the same 
time, an important one ; and it, in the hig'ier seminaries of 
learning the benefus derived from the new .system, are found 
to correspond with those obt-.iiijed in schools ^nd academies, 
a more r.pid and general advance to a higbiy improved state 
of ed-icaiK'n wiil certainly be tiie happy result. 

Boston, Oct. 18'i6. 



CONTENTS. 



DIRECTIONS 

Introductory observations, 

Defects of common school rooms, 

Proper form of a school room, . 

Books, &c. for a monitorial school, 

Manner of opening a school, 

Cassification, 

Order of exercises. 

Miscellaneous directions. 

System of rewards and punishments, 

Objection to noise in monitorial schools. 

Advice to school committees, 

APPENDIX : 

General advantages of the monitorial system. 
Sketch of the progress of the system, 
Primary schools of Holland, 
Monitorial schools in Great Britain, 
Monitorial schools in the United States, 
























New-York, 

Boston, 

Mr. Fowlers school. 
High school for girls, 
Mr. Price's school. 






Lancasterian school, New- Haven, 

" " Albany, 

Mutual instruction in Colleges, 



3 
4 
6 
10 
12 
13 
16 
23 
27 
31 
32 

35 

44 

53 

63 

70 

ib 

74 

76 

88 

97 

101 

104 

107 



MANUAL OF MONITORIAL INSTRUCTION. 



After the favorable reception which the sys- 
tem of mutual instruction has of late experienced, 
and the solid arguments in favor of its utility 
deduced from successful experiments made in our 
own country, and under our own observation, a 
formal defence of it cannot be necessary. The 
public in general are satisfied ; they do not want 
proofs of the utility of the system, so much as plain 
directions to enable them to put it in practice. 

The directions given in the following manual 
are founded upon a knowledge of all the improve- 
ments which have been made upon the new sys- 
tem since its first promulgation, and the experi- 
ence of several years in the instruction of ele- 
mentary and other schools ; upon, it is believed, 



4 

a competent knowledge, of the system hitherto 
pursued in New-England ; and a rigid regard for 
economy^ a consideration of too much weight in 
most of the school districts in our country towns. 
Our manual is intended for public schools, where 
spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, 
and geography only are taught, and is equally ap- 
flicahle to small schools of thirty^ or large ones 
of three hundred or more. 

Mutual instruction w^as first introduced to save 
the expense of teachers in large schools ; but expe- 
rience has discovered in it a far greater benefit, 
ivhich is, the more thorough and practical educa- 
tion acquired by those children who are required 
to teach as well as learn ; and, in a well ordered 
school on the monitorial plan, every child before he 
leaves the school is employed as a teacher. In 
schools, therefore, of only twenty or thirty scho- 
lars, although the master may feel perfectly com- 
petent to teach them all personally, still it is desir- 
able that they should learn the use of his instruc- 
tions by transmitting them to the younger scholars. 

It is to be regretted that in our common school 
rooms so little regard has been paid to the con- 
venience of the master and pupils. The bench 



of one desk is generally fastened to the front of 
the next desk, so as to allow no passage behind 
the scholar, and to oblige him to disturb the whole 
row when he wishes to leave his seat. This ar- 
rangement also effectually prevents the writing 
master from passing between the desks to exam- 
ine the books of the writers. Another fault of 
construction in our school rooms is, that the forms 
or desks do not all face the master's desk. This 
prevents his having a commanding view of the 
whole, and the scholars having a convenient view 
of him, and what he wishes to show them; be- 
sides, it enables the children to look at each other, 
a serious evil, were one sex only present, but much 
more serious, when, as in most of our country 
schools, both sexes are in the same room, and 
placed opposite to each other. These are the 
two greatest defects in the construction of our 
school rooms, and it is desirable that they should 
be remedied before the new system is introdu- 
ced, — but let it be understood, that the new sys- 
tem may be tried in a room of any construction, 
although its advantages cannot be so fully appre- 
ciated as when the room is more conveniently ar- 
ranged. 
J* 



6 

A parallelogram, or oblong square, is the best 
form for a school room; the instructer's desk 
should be at the end nearest the door, that he 
may see who enters or goes out, and that visiters, 
when they first enter, may see the Jaccs of all 
the scholars, as will be the case, if the desks 
cross the room in front of the master's desk. It 
is necessary to have a broad aisle of five or six. 
feet on one side of the school, in which the clas- 
ses may form semicircles around their monitors, 
who stand or sit with their backs to the wall. 

The annexed diagram will give some idea of 
the most simple and convenient form of a school 
room ; and school committees who are about to 
erect new school houses, may be assured that 
the arrangement we propose will be found as 
convenient for the old system of instruction, as 
for the new, besides the economy of room, which 
will be evident. 



Window. 



o 

o 8 o 





'a 





o 7 o 
o o o 



Window. 
) — ' o 

0^0 




= = 


=3= 


=5 


=:= 


"^^z n:=s 


1 1 












1 1 












\ 1 












1 1 


Passage 1 


Detween 1 


Dench & desk. 


1 1 



n3 






Door. I 




o 

o »ft r 

o 



o 

o ^ [ 



o 

O CO [ 

o _ 



o 

O (N 

O 





O 1 o 

o __ o 



REMARKS. 

1. The semicircles as thej are called, are 
not perfectly so, for it is found that the shape 
here given takes up less room and is more con- 
venient for the class. These are the reciting 
stations, in the centre of which is a seat for the 



8 

monitor. This seat may be a permanent one, a 
desk, or a cliaij ; or the monitor may be required 
to stand, which is tlie preferable mode. 

2. There should bs about eighteen inches 
between the ends of the semicircles, so that chil- 
dren standing at each may not touch one another. 

3. From the wall to the front of the semi- 
circles may be about four feet ; and then there 
must be room between the front of the semicir- 
cles and the desks, to allow of a person's passing 
down the aisle, while the children are standing at 
the stations. Two feet will be sufficient, thus 
making the aisle six feet wide. 

4. The master's desk had better be semicir- 
cular, that classes may form around it and recite 
to him. It should be elevated about eighteen 
inches above the floor, and have two circular 
steps around it. 

5. The narrow aisle on the left side of the 
school will be found convenient, but may be dis- 
pensed with if the other aisle is a wide one. 

6. The nearest form should be about four 
feet from the master's desk. The seats for the 
scholars may be separate stools, nailed to the 
floor, or single benches strongly made and fasten- 



9 

ed. The desk should have a shelf under it, to 
hold the slate and books of the children. 

7. Between the seats and the front of the 
next row, should be a passage waj of fifteen or 
twenty inches width, that master and monitors 
may pass freely behind the scholars. 

8. The reading stations, 6, 7, and 8, behind 
the desks, may be dispensed with, if there are 
enough elsewhere, and, in winter, one or two 
may be made by the door. These stations are 
marked by grooves in the floor cut or scratched. 
Paint is sometimes used but is soon effaced. 

9. The desks nearest the master's should be 
somewhat lower than the others, to suit the 
smallest children. In arranging the relative 
heiofht of the seats and desks or forms, the best 
plan is to set a child upon the seat, and place the 
form just high enough for him to write and keep 
his elbow at his side. Always recollect that it 
had better be too low than too high. 

Such is the arrangement we should propose, 
and a judicious teacher will come as near to it 
as circumstances will allow. He may adopt the 
whole, or a part, or none ; for it is possible to do 
without reading stations ; the monitor sitting at 



10 

the end of a bench, and the children standing in 
a semicircle around him. It is better however 
for the classes to read towards the wall than 
towards the centre of the room, for less noise is 
made, and there is less to distract the attention. 

In European schools, and in some in our own 
country, where the poor are chiefly taught, the 
children read from sheets printed in very large 
type, and hung against the wall, over the moni- 
tor's seat. The class can all see the sheet, and 
read from it. After a class has read one sheet, 
they exchange sheets with another class ; and 
thus one set of sheets, or cards, as they are call- 
ed, will suffice for a large school. There are, 
however, many disadvantages attending the use 
of these cards, and as the selections on them are 
very inferior to the books generally used in our 
schools; and, moreover, as our villages contain 
few parents so poor that they cannot procure the 
necessary books, we should recommend the use 
of books to the exclusion of cards. The books 
may however, be public property, under the care 
of the master, and perhaps in many cases this 
would prevent the inconvenience arising from the 
want of books, or of unilbrmities in them. 



11 

Efsch child must have a slate, which should be 
ruled after the follovviiig pattern. 



The Jive lines are for the 
body of the letter, the middle 
one to show where most let- 
ters join. The inner of the 
two lines mark the length of 
stems not looped, and the out- 
er lines the length of those 
looped. Three such lines, 
or assemblages of lines, may 
be put on one side of a com- 
mon slale : the other side is 
kept unruled. 

As every master has his 
•own mode of teaching writ- 
ing, he can rule the slate to 
suit himself, if he does not 
like our plan. Books ruled 
on this plan may be purchas- 
ed at the bookstore of Mr. 
Josiah Loring, Boston. 



No other apparatus will be needed except a 
small bell or whistle, and a board about four feet 
by three, and painted black. This is placed over 
the master's desk, or wherever the scholars can 
see it best, and letters, words or sums, diagrams, 
&:c., are written on it with chalk. The board 
must be well painted, and chalk of the best 



12 

quality, free from particles of flint, should be 
used, that the board may not be scratched. 

In such schools as can afford it, we should also 
recommend another long board painted black, and 
ruled with white or red hnes like the slates, with 
a great and small alphabet painted on it ; the 
length and proportions of the letters being care- 
fully preserved, that the child may always have 
a copy to appeal to, when in doubt about the 
form of a letter. 

In offering directions for a change of systems 
in our common schools, w^e shall suppose some 
one employed to teach a school of this sort, and 
shall give him the necessary directions. 

Before the day appointed for opening the 
school, let it be known that each child is expect- 
ed to bring his last writing book, ciphering book, 
and all the other books he has used the previous 
season. This will assist in classing the scholars, 
which is the first important step. 

When the children are all assembled, write 
their names on a sheet of paper to be afterwards 
copied alphabetically on the class lists, which will 
be hereafter described. 



Let 'the children all stand in one or two lines, 
and read from the same book. As they read 
place them higher or lower as they compare 
with the others. After they have read round 
once, let them do so again, that your judgement 
may be corrected or confirmed. Then take the 
head readers for monitors, and their number 
must depend upon the number of scholars. One 
hundred scholars will need about twelve moni- 
tors. 'After you have taken these, let the eight 
next highest readers form the highest class ; the 
eight next, the next class ; and so down. Let the 
lowest class be called the first. Then let these 
classes form around the stations, and assign a par- 
ticular class to each monitor. 

Much difficulty will be experienced from the 
diversity of books found in every school ; and it 
is to be lamented that parents are so unAviliins: 
to purchase a new book, however improved, 
while any book, however antiquated and unsuit- 
able, is already owned. This embarrasses the 
teacher and retards the progress of the pupils. 
We shall point out such books as are suitable, 
and earnestly recommend it to school committees, 
to see that every child is supplied with them. 
2 



14 

^^e (3o ubt say that the system we advoc^fte can- 
not struggle with the evil complained of, as well 
as the old system can; but we love uDircrmity, 
and are unwilling to dig our garden with a hoe, 
when for a trifle we can purchase a spade. 

Having classed the readers, the next thins^ is 
to class the writers. Let each scholar write 
three w^ords on his slate ; each writing the same 
words that they may be more easily compared. 
Select the best waiters, say as many as you have 
forms, for monitors of writing on the slate, and, 
if possible, let these slate monitors not be the 
same children you have selected for reading mon- 
itors. Then divide the children into classes, 
which may consist of as many as sit at one form, 
if the school be numerous. Let the best writers 
occupv the forms farthest from the master's 
desk, and the beginners will then occupy the 
lower desks. 

Having classed the writers, arrange all the schol- 
ars, and give a fair trial at spelling. Let one or 
two oi' the best writers take down the names of 
the scholars, and mark each scholar that spells 
incorrectly. Let those who err go below those 
who spell tlie word right. After spelling round 



15 

ten or fifteen times, let those who have made no 
error, (as will appear on the slate,) take the 
head, those who have made only one go next, 
and so down to those who erred the most. As 
there will be several who failed in the same 
number of words, precedence must be given to 
those who stood the highest when they left off 
spelling, and this is the chief object of letting 
them go up and down, when a record is kept on 
the slate also. Now begin at the foot and mark 
off eight for the first class, then the next eight 
for the second, and so on until only enough are 
left for monitors of these classes. Then let the 
monitors, beginning at the highest, choose a class ; 
until each class has a monitor. 

Let each, with slate in hand, stand up for ex- 
amination in arithmetic. Such as have never 
ciphered may be classed according to ages ; but 
such as have ciphered, must first be tried in nu- 
meration, then addition, subtraction, &c. and as 
fast as any fail to do the sum, mark them off for 
a class. Take the best for monitors, and then 
yourself teach these monitors numeration thor- 
oughly; and let them teach i\\e same to their 
classes. Require all to hBgin at the beginnings 



16 

that the J may review what they are supposed 
to know ; and let none advance until thoroughly 
acquainted with a rule. 

As but a small proportion will have studied 
grammar and geography, there will probably be 
but one class, and this you must teach yourself. 
But you will soon permit others to commence 
the study of these branches, that your class may 
be exercised in teaching them. 

As directions for their use are given in the. 
grammar and geography we shall hereafter pro- 
pose, we need only remark here that when more 
iiranches are taught, less time must be allowed 
for each branch ; or geography may be studied 
one day, or one week, and grammar the next 
week. This arrangement can be made by the 
teacher. 

Supposing the school to open at 9, and con- 
tinue till 12, A. M.and then to open at 2, and con- 
tinue till 4 in the afternoon, the following may 
be the order of exercises until experience teach- 
es a better. 

At nine A. M. ring the little bell as a signal for 
every cliild to take his seat. Call the ro// and 
o-ive each child present a merit mark for punciu- 
nlity. The nature of this merit mark will be 



17 

hereafter explained, though not so fully as in the 
second number of the Journal of Education. — 
[pp. 72, 73.] 

91. Order monitors of reading to their stations, 
then direct the classes to form around them, in 
perfect silence, with hands behind. Give a sig' 
nal for the head of each class to begin to read at 
once. Whilst the classes are reading to the mo- 
nitors the master goes round and hears each 
class a little, or hears a different class each day, 
keeping a vigilant eye upon the whole school. 

5m. before 10. Ring the bell for all to stop, 
and require all to do so instantly, even if a word 
be half pronounced. Let them then form a line 
in front of their reading stations, (where the dot- 
ted line is in our diagram.) Then take the class 
list, and, beginning with the highest class, give a 
merit to such as their monitors say deserve one, 
and so on to the lowest class. In very large 
schools it would take too long to call the roll in 
this way; the monitor, therefore, must be requir- 
ed to keep a little list of his own class, and mark 
the merits himself upon it, transferring them once 
a week to the general list kept by the master. 

Then order the classes — highest first-r-to walk 

2# 



18 

lightly, with hands behind, to their seats. It is 
better that they stand behind their seats until 
the signal is given to sit all together. All this 
may as well be done in five minutes as in fifty. 

10 o'clock. Call the monitors of reading 
around your desk, to read to you. Then order 
monitors of slate writing to their stations at 
the head or end of each form. Let an intelli- 
gent monitor, with a clear voice, called the mon- 
itor of dictation, say, ' Take slates,'^ Each child 
lays his slate before him — ' Clean slates,'' Each 
child rubs until the bell sounds for all to stop 
together, and put their hands behind at the same 
instant. 

In some schools on this plan the slate is im- 
moveably fixed in the form, in others there is a 
place into which it fits but is not fix^d. We think 
it better to dispense with the former plan that 
the children may be able to carry their slates 
out to their ciphering stations, and with the lat- 
ter that the surface of the form may not be un- 
even when they write on paper — and with both, 
that the children may sit nearer each other than 
the fixed slates will allow, in case the school is 
crowded. 



19 

It should be recollected that the children have 
all been classed in writing, but do not sit accord- 
ing to that classification. It is necessary, there- 
fore, that they leave their seats to be classed* 
To do this, the monitor of dictation says, 'ReadyP 
then, ^RiseT 'WalkP Let them follow the head 
of the class to the side of school room across 
the broad aisle, and remain in single file, and turn 
round. Then let the highest row file off to their 
writing stations and the rest follow. It takes 
some time to describe this movement ; but two 
minutes are sufficient to execute it. The moni- 
tor of dictation will keep order, while the class- 
es are writing ; but if the school be very large 
he may have a colleague called monitor of order. 
After the slates are filled with words, (three 
long words or six short ones,) the monitor of dic- 
tation orders the slate monitors to examine slates. 
They do this, marking errors in spelling, badly 
formed letters, &c. These monitors should have 
their own slates also, and write the words which 
their classes write ; and before they are direct- 
ed to examine their classes, they may show their 
own slates to the monitor of dictation. This is 
a salutary check upon the monitors ; but if they 



20 

are not required to write themselves, they should 
keep behind their classes all the time, instructing 
and correcting them. 

When they write on the slate, let such as are 
capable write the same word, which must be one 
in the regular spelling lesson. The little children 
who cannot write whole words, must write let- 
ters, or parts of letters, and their monitor must 
set them copies until they can write from dicta- 
tion. Every child must write something, and 
of course must have a slate and pencil. 

The monitor of dictation goes to the highest 
class, and spells very distinctly the word they are 
to write. He then goes to the next class and 
gives them a word from their lesson, and so down 
to the classes which are unable to write words. 

10|^. Send off your class of reading monitors. 
Ring the bell for writing to cease. Give the 
word 'ready! — rise! — walk!' and then let them 
file off to their seats, as before writing. They 
should however have a merits if they have writ- 
ten well and correctly; and you may mark them 
by calling each name, or let the monitors do it on 
small lists. 



21 

10 h. 35 m. Ring the bell for spelling mroni- 
tors to go to their stations. Say, ' ready ! i?ise ! 
lead 01% highest first, to spelling stations !' While 
the classes are spelling to youjjsyou will hear the 
monitors of arithmetic recite, or inspect their 
work. If you are unwilling to take them from 
their spelling, you may take some other half 
hour less inconvenient. 

11 o'clock. Ring for silence. Mark merits. 
Lead off from the head of the highest class. 

11 and 5 minutes. Hear the grammar class 
yourself, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — or 
that \n geography Tuesday, Thursday, and Satur- 
day. The rest of the school may be employed 
in copying a word written on the board, or in 
saying the multiplication tables, &c., after a mo- 
nitor, altogether, or finally, in spelling altogether, 
but in a low voice, the words of the day's lesson. 
By all means require them to do something. 

11-}. The classitication fo^ writing on the 
slate, will not always do for paper also. There* 
fore, after you have examined their former writ- 
ing books, and selected your monitors for writino* 
an paper ^ let them proceed — 'ready! — rise !-^ 
walk !' as they did before writing on the slate, 



22 

and then file off to the new seats. Then let the 
monitors give the books and pens of their classes 
to them. 

It is well to have two sets of monitors^ that one 
set may be on duty a week, and the other re- 
lieve them next week. Then you may teach 
the class of monitors not on duty, and oversee 
the whole school, particularly the lower scholars, 
who do not write on paper, and may be employ- 
ed on the slate. 

If there are not good writers enough for two 
sets of monitors, and you have but one set, jou 
must contrive to let them write a Httle while be- 
tween or durmg some of the other exercises. 
But this is not \ery important, because they 
have practice in seiting copies for their classes, 
which duty may be performed in the recess be- 
tween schools, or at some spare moment in 
school time. Monitors seldom need to be told 
when to do this, for they easily find an opportu- 
nity themselves. 

12 o'clock. Make each child show his copy 
to you, and give him a merit or demerit as he 
deserves. Dismiss as fast as you examine. 



23 



AFTERNOON. 

2 o'clock. Call to order. Mark for punctual- 
ity as in the morning'. 

2|. Order out for readings as in the morning. 
Mark merits, &c. 

2|. Order writino^ on slate, as in the morning. 
Hear monitors of readinu; or arithmetic yourself 

2\. Order monitors of arithmetic to stations. 
Order aritlimetic classes to their monitors. Let 
theai recite intellectual arithmetic one day, and 
practice on their slates the next. 

4 o'clock. Mark merits and dismiss. 

This order of exercises maj look formidable 
but the teacher is assured that he will under- 
stand the routine of the whole business thorouo-h- 
\y in a day or two, and so will the children. It 
will be necessary, now to give a few miscellane- 
ous directions, which could not conveniently be 
inserted elsewhere. 

In readings let any child who can correct an- 
other go above him. But as their anxiety to 
correct will produce confusion unless reo-ulated, 
let each who notices a mistake hold up his hand, 
but not speak until the monitor tells him. The 



24 

monitor must let the nearest to the reader speak 
first; but no one must speak who did not hold up 
his hand. If any one m25-correct, he must go 
down one, for interrupting the reader. 

In writings whether on the slates or paper, 
ohlige every child to begin with single letters : 
the younger scholars because they must learn 
them of course ; and the older scholars because 
they cannot teach correctly, unless correctly 
tauffht the elements. As the monitors will not 
know how to mend pens for themselves and their 
classes, you must call them around you at an 
early day, and teach them in a class. After you 
have once taught a class to make pens, the 
younger children will learn without troubling 
you. 

In spelling it is important that you drill the 
monitors, before employing them to teach clas- 
ses. For this purpose call around you the moni- 
tors of spelling. Require them to stand with 
hands behind, that they may do the same by their 
classes. Pronounce the word to be spelled very 
distinctly. Require the child to pronounce it 
before he begins to spell. If he spells it wrong, 
those who discover the error and can correct it. 



25 

may hold up hands, as in reading. The monitor 
directs the nearest to the spoiler who held his 
hand up, to correct ; and it is desirable in long 
words that he should point out the other's error, 
before he spells the whole word. It" he correct 
and spell the word rightly, let him go up ; and let 
all who go down spell the word for which they 
lose their places. 

In reviewing to obtain new monitors of spel- 
ig, you will omit writing on the slate, and oc- 
ipy the time usually devoted to that exercise, 
id spelling at the stations, with the review. This 
will le long enough ; for it will not be necessary 
to have every word spelled, that has been spel- 
led since the last review. You had better keep 
a spelling book of your own, and mark every 
word that presents any difficulty, with a pencil; 
ind then this will serve as a guide to the moni- 
or of dictation, in the selection of words to be 
written on the slate. Be sure to set a lesson 
every day for the spelling classes ; and let as many 
as are capable, spell the same lesson, that more 
may have a chance to rise to the dignity of mo- 
nitor. 

In arithmetic you will be perplexed in several 
3 



A . 



26 

ways. You will find a variety of ' arithmetics^ 
in the school, from Pike's octavo to Temple's 
primer. You must use all your influence to 
have these discarded. Let each child under six 
years of age be furnished with the Child's x4rith- 
metic, a little intellectual system, just published 
by the teacher of the monitorial school in Bos- 
ton. As soon as the child is master of this, let 
him procure Colburn's First Lessons of Intel- 
lectual Arithmetic, to which the former is a suit- 
able introduction. Regular lessons can be given 
in these, and they contain directions for their 
use. 

Inwr'itten arithmetic, introduce, if possible,Col- 
burn's Sequel. Those who have ciphered con- 
siderably must have it : the monitors should use 
it as a guide in teaching beginners. Not that the 
use of either of these books is absolutely essen- 
tial to the introduction of our system ; but because, 
as we said before, in the choice of instruments, 
it is preferable to select the best. 

Pay particular attention to numeration. Let 
the snjallest child begin to make the figures, as 
soon as he has learned to write the alphabet. 
How the very youngest may be employed \n 



27 

counting you will learn in the Child's Arithmetic 
above mentioned. 

In grammar and geography^ if you use those 
prepared for the monitorial school in Boston, you 
will need no other directions than those in the 
books. 

We have alluded to merits and class lists. The 
system of rewards and punishments our experi- 
ence recommends is the following. Let a fixed 
price be established for every exercise. For in- 
stance, let an attentive reader be allowed one 
merit; but if one has been very inattentive let 
him have a demerit : give to every speller who 
has missed no word in the lesson one merit ; if he 
has missed only one word, give him half a merit. 
If he misses more than three, give him a demerit. 
So in arithmetic, writing, and the other branches. 
Give a monitor half a merit more than the best 
of his class receives, provided he has done his 
duty. In fine, let there be a fixed reward, if 
possible, for every thing; that as little as possible 
may be left to the judgement of the monitors ; and 
that the children, knowing liow many merits they 
are entitled to, as well as the monitor does, may 
see that he does them justice. 



28 



The teacher may be as particular as he pleas- 
es in enumerating the branches under which 
merits are awarded, but we think the following 
will be sufficiently particular. 



CO 

«^ 

Co' 
«o" 


<?^ 

S 

3 


'-0 


!r w! 


• • 

—1 1— I l-H 


to 
so 

CO 


• • 
•— 1 l-H 




«o 


.^mes, W. mil » . 

Barker. J.^l 

Cook. P. 1 . 

Davis. L. Ill . 
And so on 
alphabeti- 
cally. 



•T3 15 



S '^ 

^ s 

O bo 

c— O 






t- o 

O ^ i^ 

^ w J3 

^ « a> 

cu ^ ** 

o a 



Some may prefer a head for each branch. 
Each demerit is equal to a merit. Therefore, at 
the end of the month, add up the merits, and de- 



29 

duct the demerits. You will then have a pretty 
fair statement of what every scholar has done. 

If an injudicious parsimony, but too common in 
those who manage our district schools, can be 
induced to unbend a little, a few dollars, distri- 
buted quarterly in rewards, will do more tow^ards 
maintaining the necessary discipline, and encour- 
aging industry, than any species of punishment 
by the master or the committee. Indeed, as we 
have observed in regard to other points, although 
our system may be carried on by the barbarous 
practice of flogging the body, without attempt- 
ing to correct or improve the mind, we declare 
it to be the result of our experience with the 
worst as well as the best class of our population, 
that if a child cannot be improved by motives 
addressed to his moral feelings, corporeal punish- 
ment will only make him worse. It is true he 
may be compelled to submit for a time ; but it is 
with a spirit full of revenge, anger, and other 
bad passions, which will stifle every good prin- 
ciple he may have possessed, or burst forth again 
at the first opportunity. We never yet found an 
advocate of castigation who was not willing to 

3* 



30 

allow that the good effects of it were doubtful, 
and that ' the more one flogs the more one may.' 

When it is ascertained how much money may 
be expended in prizes, find the value of every 
merit, and distribute the money, or prizes to that 
amount, in proportion to the number of merits 
each scholar has obtained during the month or 
quarter. This is preferable to fixing a certain 
value to every merit at first, for you cannot tell 
how many merits there will be, nor what sum it 
will require to redeem them. 

By punctuality^ in our class list, is meant a re- 
gular appearance at the hour for opening school. 
This should always be insisted on, especially in 
regard to monitors. If a reward for punctuality 
do not produce an early attendance, let those 
who come fifteen minutes too late receive a de- 
merit or be sont home. Habits of punctuality 
are of the highest importance to the young; but 
in many of our common country schools, the mas- 
ter can seldom proceed to business until an hour 
after the hour set for opening the school. In 
one flourishing village of Massachusetts the 
children, in winter, carry each a stick of wood 
to school, nor is there any fire in the school 
room until a sufficient number of sticks has been 



31 

collected by this daily contribution. These 
things ought not so to be. 

In regard to the system of Mutual Instruction, 
it should be understood that there are various 
modifications of it, caused by a greater or less 
deviation from the old method of saying things 
by rote, without exercising the judgement or 
proving the knowledge of the pupil by requiring 
him to apply it to some practical purpose. In 
some schools on the new plan, monitors are used; 
but lessons are recited in the old way without 
exphination. In others, the children are allowed 
to ask an explanation of the monitor; and the 
monitor is required to give it. We mention this 
circumstance because many good old fashioned 
ears are shocked with the noise necessarily made 
in a school of the explanatory kind, and may judge 
of the comparative merit of schools by their 
comparative silence and orderly inaction. No 
instructer can teach a class without frequently 
speaking to them ; and the same indulgence 
should be allowed to monitors : the only point is, 
to check unnecessary conversation. It is easy 
to keep a silent and still school ; but this is in- 
compatible with practical instruction by the aid 



32 

of monitors. The free interchange of ideas 
amongst the pupils, when conducted in an order- 
ly manner, is productive of much good, and 
should be encouraged. Noise is only injurious 
when it obstructs business ; and in monitorial 
schools, well regulated noise, is rather an indica- 
tion of industry than of disorder. It should be 
recollected also that those who make a noise are 
not those most offended by it. The tin kettle dis- 
courses excellent music to the child who beats it : 
the cotton factory stuns all but the workmen. 
A silent factory is a desideratum ; but much good 
work is more desirable. 

We shall conclude with one word of advice 
to school committees. As the success of any 
system depends upon an impartial exercise of it, 
and as the system proposed in this manual re- 
quires more exercise of the judgement of children 
than any other, it must be your endeavor to 
second the exertions of the master. Encourage 
him to deal impartially with all. Submit your 
own children entirely to his guidance: allow 
them no distinction to which their merit does 
not entitle them. The aristocracy of cities is 



33 

proverbial ; but you must have seen that few 
country schools are free from family influence. 
The squire's child must not be in the class of a 
poor man's son : the clergyman's son must be a 
monitor whether qualified or not. Frown upon 
all such distinctions ; and recollect that undeserv- 
ed promotion will not excite your own children 
to exertion, but will discourage those who have 
nothing beside their own exertions to depend 
upon, and who keenly feeling their wrongs, will 
entertain but a poor opinion of your justice. Be 
generous towards the teachers you employ. Be 
careful to select a man of mild temper, and pure 
morals ; and when you have found such a one, let 
not the whole term of his service be embittered 
by the reflection that his services are undervalued. 
How can you expect a man to devote himself to 
the school under such circumstances? Depend 
upon it he will give you only the money's worth 
of his time and exertions; and this is all you can 
reasonably expect. We mention the subject of 
salaries, because we believe they are generally 
too low to induce a gentleman of talents to un- 
dertake the charge of a village school, and be- 
cause to this circumstance, more than to any 



34 

other, (if we except the short term for which a 
male teacher is employed,) may be attributed 
the low standard of education in our common 
schools. If you cannot afford any additional ex- 
pense, let a small piece of ground be cultivated 
annually by the boys for the benefit of the school ; 
or let the clergyman and selectmen see that those 
who have nothing to spare to educate their chil- 
dren, spare nothing for the indulgence of some 
useless or pernicious habit. 



[At the request of the publishers, the editor of the Journal of 
Education has compiled the following Appendix,] 



afpendk:&:. 



The system of mutual instruction is perhaps not so ex- 
tensively known in New-England, as its merits would lead 
those who are acquainted with it to expect. The fol- 
lowing brief arguments therefore, in favor of it, and the 
annexed history of its progress abroad and at home, may 
not be unacceptable as an accompaniment to the Manual. 

This system aids the healthful growth and perfection of the 
body. The evils arising from close confinement long con- 
tinued, from the sedentary position, and even from the 
much lauded stillness of most schools — though considered 
by some persons as indispensably necessary, or perhaps as 
very desirable, — are, to the reflecting mind, a source of 
pain. Restraint and constraint are alike irksome and ex- 
hausting: they entail languor and debility, and produce, 
perhaps, much of that inactivity of body and mind, which 
are the great barriers to success in the various depart- 
ments of man's social relations. The constant suppression 
of the animal spirits, which it has too com.monly been deem- 
ed the duty of tfachers to enforce on the children com- 
mitted to their care, — is, perhaps, one great cause of that 
debility which generates dyspepsy and consumption — the 
great enemies of heaUh arid happiness, in this region of 
the United States. How tew among the thousands of chil- 
dren who are every year taught in common schools, are 



36 APPENDIX. 

destined for a sedmtanj life; and yet how undeviatingly, 
and how carefully is every little pupil disciplined for it! As 
if the best possible way of producing hardy and active 
farmers and mechanics, were to divest them of habits of 
action, and train them to the power of confining their 
bodies for the longest possible time to the smallest possible 
number of square inches. 

On the improved system the body is free, or is exercised 
in various ways. The prevailing position of the arms and 
hands, tends to expand the chest, and produce an erect 
and healthful and graceful form. Occasional exercises of 
various parts of the body, are thrown in at suitable inter- 
vals. An agreeable alternation of attitude and posture, 
arise out of the various lessons. 1 he flow of spirits, so 
natural and so advantageous to the young, is constantly 
kept up, and at the same time is well directed. An active 
body and an active mind, are the unfailing characteristics 
of the pupils of this system. — They enter on the business 
of life prepared for enterprise and usefulness. 

The moral influence of this system is vastly superior to 
that pursued in the greater number of schools. 

The new method conduces much to the happiness of the 
young. As no irksome restraint is employed, and a con- 
stant glow of pleasing activity prevails, education becomes 
a source of enjoyment: it is loved accordingly; and the 
feelings of children are thus enlisted on behalf of their own 
improvement. One peculiarly favorable feature of the 
monitorial method, is, that it furnishes children with con- 
stant employment, saves them from the temptations and the 
gloom of idleness, and early forms habits of industry, which 
are powerful aids to those of virtue — if, in fact, they 
do not constitute a great part of virtue itself 

On the intellectual advantages of the system of mutual in- 
struction we can barely enter. A large volume might easily 
be written on this branch of the subject. But a few lead- 
ing ideas are all we can find room to offer here. 



APPENDIX. 37 

The cultivation of the understanding takes the lea<l, and 
that of memory follows. This is the ordei of nature. 
But in most schools we tind it in a great measure reversed. 
Children are made to get by heart what they cannot under- 
stand without assistance, and, not unfrequenlly, what is 
never once explained to them. A morbid species of me- 
mory, faithful to words, but false to facts, is the inva- 
riable result of this kind of training. The teacher's con- 
stant and anxious aim should be, to keep children from the 
habit of reading and repeating words without reference to 
their meaning. Everv attentive observer of the youthful 
mind must hav(5 remarked children possessing ready me- 
mories and acute understandings, but no force of thought, 
and no retentiveness of memory, — no positive and maiked 
mental character. Much of this deficiency is attributable 
to false methods of instruction, and especially to the ruin- 
ous habit of inattention necessarily produced by reading 
and recitino; words which are not understood. 

On the improved system, the memory is in fact more 
successfully cultivated tlian on the old. Nothing is pre- 
sented to the. memory but in an intelligible and distinct 
form, and with direct reference to use. Every thing, 
therefore, which is professedly committed to memory, is 
deeply impressed and permanently retained: more, cer- 
tainly, than can he said of most less nis which are got 
merely by the wordsof a book wliich is hardly intelligible, and 
wliich can leave but a dim and evanescent trace on the mind. 

The whole discipHne of the monitorial method, is strict- 
ly practical: it breathes the spirit and wears the air of 
business. It avoids the inconsistency of training for action 
hy seclusion and stillness. It begins the business of life in 
the very school-room; for it immediately sets the young to 
work, in the employment of imparting instruction. 

The new system furnishes not only intelligent and active 
candidates for the various departments of common business, 
but insures the unspeakable advantage of express prepara-. 
4 



38 APPENDIX. 

tion for the office of teaching. It provides a constant 
supply of practical instructors, furnished with the aids of 
good system and thorough experience. Kverij well-con- 
ducted monitorial school is in fad a nuy^sery for good teachers. 
For arguments more immediately applicable to the de- 
tails of the system we would refer to the following extract 
from the Report of the Instructer of the Boston Monitorial 
School. 

It may seem unnecessary to say a word in answer to ob- 
jections which have been made to the monitorial system; 
since its success has refuted them, in the most eflectual 
manner; but I think they may be proved theoretically, as 
well as practically groundless. 

It is said that children, comparatively ignorant, are un- 
qualified to teach others. In answer to this, it might be 
sufficient to assert that we do not require children to teach 
any thing of which they are ignorant; but it is said that 
children are not qualified to teach what they do understand; 
because they are ignorant of other subjects, and but little 
older than their classes. This principle appears to me to 
strike at the root of all instruction; and no adult teacher, 
who must necessarily be ignorant of many things which 
he does, or does not pretend to teach to an audience older 
perhaps than himself, ought to be countenanced, for a mo- 
ment. But the wisest and best of us go to church, and to 
lectures on all subjects without suspecting that the teacher 
is only a monitor, who knows a little more than we do of 
the subject under consideration, but is perhaps our inferior 
in other respects. The art of teaching consists chiefly in 
adapting the explanation to the capacity of the learner. 
That this qualification is possessed by i'ew — very few — 
adults is a lamentable fact. Even their familiarity M-ith a 
subject is sometimes the cause of their failure, in attempt- 
ing to communicate it tQ others. Is it not a reasonable 
supposition, that the explanations of children to children, 
may be often better suited to their capacities, than the ex- 



APPENDIX. 39 

planatioiis of adults? If it be granted that one child can 
teach another the alphabet, it follows that, with proportion- 
ate increase of knowledge, she can teach syllables, then 
short words, and so on to the end of all knowledge. It 
may be said, then, there is danger of a child's being re- 
quired to teach too much. If the master is so ignorant of 
her capacity, as to require such an exercise, she v/ill not 
attempt it. Children are more sensible of their defects, 
than their elders are, and have less art, and no motive, in 
concealing them. If, because a child is not thoroughly 
instructed, the capacity of her monitor must be questioned, 
what is to be inferred from the fact that pupils of all, even 
the best teachers, are often in the same condition ? — I am 
almost ashamed to be opposing theory to theory, when I 
am furnished with what is the best of all arguments — a suc- 
cessful experiment. 

But it has been said, grant that they can teach, it does 
not follow that they can govern. Children, it is said, lack 
judgement — so do men. Children are often partial — so 
are men. Child- en love to domineer — so do men. Chil- 
dren, then, are little men; and in what does their peculiar 
inability consist? Men, it is replied, have more judgement, 
when comi>ared with children, than the latter have, when 
compared with each other. We may safely grant all this, 
and destroy its force, by sa ing that if they have less judge- 
ment in proportioJi, the drafts upon it are less also. The 
child's sphere of government is very limited, and always 
sub' rdina-e to the master's. The objection goes upon the 
presumption that monitors have full power to punish or re- 
v/ard, without being accountable for their conduct. But 
the reverse is the fact; for, in every case that can possibly 
be anticipated, their duty and power are clearly defined; 
and, in all cases, the scholar is allowed to appeal from the 
monitor's decision, to that of the master, who is always at 
haad. 

It is allowed that self-government, and the government 



40 APPENDIX. 

©f others, should coiistitute a prominent feature in every 
system of education. But shall children he taught that 
they must be discreet, impartial, and self commanding, and 
have no opportunity of exercising these qualities? If chil- 
dren lack judgement, they will run no risk of lessening 
tiicir stock, by exercising the little they do possess. It 
sihould be recollected that every monitor is also a scholar; 
and our system is truly republican. Being sometimes 
governed, children will be less likely to grow imperious; 
and sometimes commanding, they will not easily become 
acrvile. Men were once thought incapable of governing 
tiiemselvcs; but experiment has proved that those who made 
the assertion did not know every thing. 

Perhaps the best test of the excellence of a government, 
is the general morality, order, industry, and happiness of 
the governed. In the best communities, some irregulari- 
ties will appear; but these should not weigh against the 
general regularity. In forming an opinion of our discipline, 
however, if a deatli-like silence be tlie criterion of perfec- 
tion, we shall certainly be cast. We have no ambition to 
produce such a state of things, and maintain it at its known 
cost of happiness, time, and labor. We love the hum of 
business; and our practical system cannot go on without it. 
The old system of committing to memory, and obliging the 
whole to be idle and silent, that one may work, is an unpro- 
fitable system. We aim at full and complete employment; 
and this we obtain with as little noise as possible. But we 
go farther, and assert from experience that this noise nei- 
ther interrupts business, nor can be considered an evil. 
It is true that several classes recite at the same time, (that 
is, one of each class does,) but tlie classes are at some 
distance from each other, and face the centre of a semicir- 
cle, where sits their monitor. They can easily be heard by 
the monitor and by each other, and of course need not speak 
very loud. They cannot hear distinctly what is said in 
another class; and, having full employment in their own^ 



APPENDIX. 41 

would not regard it, if they could hear. This power of 
attending to business, and abstracting their thoughts from 
surrounding objects and occupations, is an acquisition, 
which, in after life, will be invaluable. 

It has been urged by some that we appeal too powerful- 
ly to the principle of ambition. Our system of rewards 
and punishments, has been explained; and it is clear that 
there is no danger from that. What then could have given 
rise to such an objection? If the activity and ardor which 
our children exhibit in all their pursuits, be unaccountable, 
perhaps I may suggest a more probable cause for them, 
than the abuse of emulation. 1 attribute them to the influ- 
ence of example, the influence which active and industri- 
ous spirits exert upon their neighbors. This universal in- 
dustry has been mistaken for unhallowed ambition; and, 
when we think of the striking contrast which it exhibits to 
the lifeless inactivity of most schools, wc are not surpris- 
ed at the mistake. 

Another form of an objection already mentioned, (that 
monitors are incompetent to teach,) is, that the master does 
not teach all the children himself It is true that he does 
not teach the smallest children all their lessons, but he 
reviews them often enough to ascertam their improvement, 
and to correct any errors which may have escaped the 
monitors. He examines them often enough to see that 
they are properly training for his hand. They are never 
out of his presence, and are always encouraged to ask his 
assistance, when it is needed. In a system so practical, it 
would be impossible for the master to attend to all. He 
therefore creates a sort of ubiquity, by stationing monitors 
to watch over such work as he cannot inspect himself. 
The master should bestovv' most of his attention upon the 
monitors; but no injustice is done to the lower classes; for 
they, in turn, will become monitors, and have so much of 
the master's exclusive care, that all former deficiencies 
will be amply made up. That there should be no obstacle 
4# 



42 APPENDIX. 

to this course, the instructer suggested the sakitary rule 
which refuses admission to all children over twelve years 
of age. Now, as the older scholars withdraw, the younger 
lill their places, and are not kept back by the entrance of 
pupils older than themselves, and unwilling to be taught 
by them, although much their inferiors in knowledge. This 
rule has excluded about forty applicants for admission; but 
it has had a highly salutary influence upon the discipline 
and improvement of the pupils. The earlier children enter 
our school, the better. They cannot begin too soon 
to form those habits of industry, and acquire that docility, 
which our system is admirably calculated to form. So 
far from considering the instruction of children by other 
children an evil or defect that should be remedied, I think 
it desirable; and their time, as well as the master's, is, by this 
arrangement, employed to the best possible advantage. Our 
plan is adopted in every other avocation of life: why is it 
objected to in this case only? We require the monitors to 
teach what is simple, and easily taught, and leave the diffi- 
cult parts of instruction for the master. The artist requires 
that the plain and easier part of his work be done by his 
apprentices, while the finishing is reserved for his own 
hand. But, in one case it has been asked, shall we not 
place our child under another master, until she is qualified 
to be a monitor in your school? I answer that that time 
will never come; for if children taught at other schools 
ever become equal to our monitors in the knowledge of 
booJcs, they will be ignorant of the art of teaching, and com- 
paratively indocile and insubordinate. Such a question 
supposes that no children are employed as monitors, but 
such as are qualified to enter the classes more particularly 
under the master's care. This is a mistake; for every 
child (except the youngest,) is, at times, employed as a 
monitor. They are thus betimes initiated; and, no sooner 
does a child know any thing that may be forgotten, than 
she is employed as a monitor, that the constant reviewing 



APPENDIX. 43 

o£ what she has studied, may fix it indeUbly upon her me- 
moiy. Teaching and learning, like reading and writing, oro 
hand in hand, Ironi the beginning. We never separate 
them. 

In our estimate of the advantages of this system, I have 
said nothing of the benefit which monitors derive from it. 
We shall connect this part of the subject with our remarks 
upon another objection, namely, that our practical system 
affords no opportunity for cultivating the memory. If by 
this is meant that we do not require our pupils to say books 
by rote, we plead guilty. But however this objection may 
lie against our school, it will not lie against the monitorial 
susfein; for there is nothing in the system to prevent the 
introduction of this worse than useless exercise. It re- 
quires no ingenious reasoning to prove, that, if children 
are only requh'ed to recite a page or two from memory, 
verbatim, a monitor is as capable of hearing the recitation, 
as any master can be. But, if the objection imply that 
the memory of our pupils is not exercised in storing up as 
many facts as are well understood, it has no foundation in 
truth. The memory is, no doubt, the storehouse of the 
other intellectual faculties; but, for the sake of filling it 
up, shall we throw in all the broken useless furniture we 
can find room tor? In a class of twenty, just promoted to 
my care, are several who have repeatedly committed to 
memory the large geographies used in common schools; 
but they neither rank at the head of their class, nor appear 
in any respect superior to such as commenced the study 
with them, but a [ew months ago, and never committed a 
word to memory. The immense difference of labor which 
this explanatory mode imposes upon the teacher and moni- 
tors, must satisfy any one, that personal ease is not our 
object in introducing it. W^e endeavor to exhibit every thing 
to the senses of the pupil. Instead of describing a kite to 
a boy, we should make one before his eyes, and then re- 
quire him to make one. instead of describing the road to 



44 APPENDIX. 

any place, we should go with the child, and let her see 
for herself. Which the child will recollect longest, the 
definition or the ohject, it is not difficult to determine. 
Our experience teaches us, that hefore children have 
reached the end of a large book which they are committing 
to memory, they have begun to forget the beginning. 
What an admirable method to prevent a master's having 
nothing to teach his pupils, and to save the expense of 
books! and what a comfort it must be to the little traveller 
on this delightiul route, to know that when he travels it 
again, every object will be decked with the charm of no- 
velty, and as fresh as if he had never seen it before! Even 
with all our care and practice, much is forgotten by the 
pupils; but we have a powerful check upon this natural 
tendency to oblivion, by the incessant reviews of former 
lessons, which monitors are obliged to make', while teach- 
ing. If any branch of education must be reviewed, how 
much more agreeable must be our method, and how much 
more will it diversify the exercise, and enlarge the thinking 
powers. Much as the public mind needs information on 
the subject of education, I think no one will deny that one 
cannot teach without also learning. But, if any parent 
doubts this fact, let him take a geography or other elemen- 
tary book, and attempt to teach his ov/n children. We 
will rest our defence upon the experiment. I have always 
found that those who teach most are the most intelligent 
scholars; and, for this reason, I always employ all, as iar 
as our small number of scholars and classes will permit. 

[The following historical sketch of the progress of the 
system of mutual instruction abroad, is extracted from Dr. 
Griscom's Address.] 

The merit of having first demonstrated the advantages 
of this mode of conducting a school, is generally believed 
to belono; to Dr. Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster; and 
there can be no question that both of these distinguished 



APPENDIX. 45 

men are entitled to the plaudits of the civilised world for 
the ingenuity with which they perfected their respective 
systems, and more especially for the indefatigable zeal and 
])erseverance with which they extended the knowledge of 
their methods, and brought them into practical operation 
on so wide a scale. It is not to be supposed, however, 
that a method which economises so well the time of school 
instruction, and multiplies the power of the master, was 
never thought of, or practised, prior to the experiment at 
Madras, or that of the Borough-Road. Almast every 
teacher of ability whose reputation had drawn around him 
forty, iifty, or more scholars, must have perceived the ad- 
vantage of employing the more advanced pupils in giving 
instruction, to a certain extent, to those below them, and 
thus enlarging his own attentions and saving that time 
which would otherwise have been sacrificed without profit. 
The experiment of Dr. Bell at Madras was undoubtedly 
prior to that of Lancaster at London; but the first efforts of 
the latter appear evidently to have been made without a 
knowledge of the former; and although in his first publi- 
cation, Lancaster acknowledged that he had derived much 
benefit from Dr. Bell's hints, yet his subsequent arrange- 
ments differed so materially in their subordinate mechanism 
from the Madras invention, {ew persons who have inquired 
into the history of both systems, will hesitate to admit that 
he is entitled to the merit of mventor, and eminently of a 
public benefactor. But neither of these meritorious in- 
dividuals was the first to demonstrate that a large school 
can be most advantageously managed by a systematic adop- 
tion of monitorial or mutual instruction. This had previ- 
ously been proved in several instances in France, and es- 
pecially at Paris in 1785, by the Chevalier Paulet. This 
instructor, aided by the liberality of the king, Louis XVL 
placed his institution not only under the operation of the 
monitorial system, but established the trial by jury, so 
lughly recommended by Dr. Bell. The documents in 



46 APPENDIX- » 

my possession furnish various other evidences of this prac- 
tice; but either from the effect of popular prejudice, or 
from the want of a more exact and better organised sys- 
tem of management, so clearly defined as to be perfect- 
ly intelligible from description, and easily communicated to 
those who might wish to put it in practice, the examples 
alluded to were lost upon the public; and the monitorial 
methods fell into disuse, until revived by the ingenuity and 
perseverance of Bell and Lancaster. Nor is it probable, 
that the complete success of these philanthropists in their 
respective establishments, nor their untiring ardor in pro- 
pagating the knowledge of their systems, would have been 
sufficient to surmount the force of customs strengthened 
by immemorial usage, and to establish these new methods 
on a permanent foundation, had not their extraordinary 
effects been witnessed and duly appreciated by a few in- 
dividuals of corresponding benevolence, and equally ar- 
dent in whatever concerns the improvement and happi- 
ness of their fellow-creatures. It was in this way that 
the British and Foreign School Society for promoting the 
Lancasterian System, and the National Society for ad- 
vancing that of Dr. Bell were formed and organised; 
and such has been their influence, there is now not a sin- 
gle country within the limits of perfect civilisation where 
schools of monitorial instruction are not established; and 
none in the enjoyment of a free government, where the 
system is not spreading with a force and acceptance 
truly rema^'kable. 

Ihe report of the British and Foreign School Society, 
for 1823, states the number of schools in the metropolis to be 
57, containing upwards of 900 children. The model School 
in the Borough Road, London, had alone instructed since 
its first establishment in 1798, 22,02G scliolars. !t contains 
500 boys and 300 girls '' and though thcro are many other 
schools," says the report, "v/ithina moderate distance, the 
pumber on the books is ahvaysfull, and at this time up- 



APPENDIX. 47 

wards of 100 are waiting for admission. Tiiousands of 
the rising generation are at the present time acquiring 
knowledge of the most valuable kind, by means of indi- 
viduals who were prepared for labor in these central 
schools, and who are to be found in almost all parts of the 
world zealously engaged in their useful and important un- 
dertaking." 

In addition to the unabated efforts of the parent society, 
there are auxiliary societies in several of the large towns 
of England whose agency is very influential in prom.oting 
Lancasterian schools in the minor towns and villages; and 
it may, I believe, be safely asserted, that there are few 
towns of any note in England that have not their monitorial 
school upon the plan of either Bell or Lancaster; and in 
many towns schools are established and well supported on 
both these systems.* In Scotland, the new system has 
made a less conspicuous progress than in England, but this 
is unquestionably owing to the superior previous condition of* 
the primary and parochial schools in that country, which ren- 
dered a change less necessary j"]' andamong a people whose 
iiabits are much averse to fluctuations, the adoption of any 
new scheme v/as much less to be expected. Nevertheless, 
the system of Lancaster (and probably that of Bell) is 

* Facts sach as these are not so cxtmsively known in this country 
as they ought to be. boine opponents of the mouitorial S3'stem seem 
to tliink they can argue it (\u\\x\. But it i;^ too late in the daj for -^uch 
a movement The system fias been in successful and extc nsive opera- 
tion for years. It is actually what luight be cail'r'd the district school 
sj r-(eni of En2:lond; so universally is it adopted. — Ed. 

t In the introduction of the monitorial system into sonie parts of 
Scotland, t!ie experiment failed, o\vin:c to its being abruptly and injudi- 
ciously adopted in scliools in which tiie common plan had t)een all along 
followed. The novelty of the thing perplexed the teacher?, and divert- 
ed rather than improved their scholars; (he former being unfortunately 
not sufficiently acquainted with it to derive ;iny benefit from it. In 
some places, therefore, it very naturally was laid aside, soon after its 
adoption. It is now more judiciously introduced, and meets with better 
success. — Kd. 



48 APPENDIX. 

making its way in Scotland. The Edinburgh Review long 
ago gave the sanction of its authoiity to the excellence of 
these systems; and in one place at least, viz. Inverness, a 
society is cstabli^hed for promoting the system, which two 
years ago had 3i? schools under its notice, containing 1524 
scholars. 

But the most remarkable and cheering instance of the 
rapid progress of this invahiable system occurs in Ireland. 
A "Society for promoting the education of the poor in Ire- 
land," commenced its operations about the year 1814, by 
establishing a monitorial school in Kildare-street, Dublin, 
for tiie double purpose ol' aiding in the education of the 
children of that metropolis, and of serving as a model 
school for ti)e training of masters, for other schools through- 
out the country. By the generous etibrts of the society, 
aided by the bounty of government, assistance has been 
liberally extended to other schools throughout Ireland, by 
furnishing masters, giving instruction in the mode of teach- 
ing, and by supplying utensils, lessons, books, he. The 
number of schools which the society has thus assisted and 
put into train, lias increased in a ra{)id [)rogression since 
the year 1817, when the number was only 8, to 1824, when 
the number of schools under the society's notice was 1122, 
comprising 79,287 scholars; — so rapidly and easily does 
this beneiicent system extend itself, under proper manage- 
ment, and so agreeably does it fall in with tlie inclinations 
of youth vv'hen properly trained to a comprehension and 
experience of its nature and advantages. The model 
school of this society in Dubliii, appeared to me, in 1819, 
to be the best monitorial school I had seen in Europe. 
The number of masters which that society has trained since 
its opening is 633. And further to aid the cause of educa- 
tion, they commenced in 1817 the publication and sale of 
cheap books, ada|;ted to the entertainment and moral im- 
provement of children. Fifty varieties of these books have 



APFExNDIX. 49 

been issued, and a total number of volumes, since tlic com- 
mencement, of 784,640. 

Of the progress and success of the National Society of 
England, whose schools are upon the system of Dr. Bell, 
and whose aim is to extend the benetits of education in 
connexion with the church service, I cannot speak willi 
much precision; but it is well known that the schools of this 
establishment are numerous, and I find it stated in an abstract 
of the report of 1823, that 77 new schools had been re- 
ceived into the union since the preceding report, ai;d that 
within the year, twenty-one masters had been trained, (two 
of whom Vv^ere for classical schools,) and eleven mistress- 
es, and that 14 schools had been supplied with permanent 
masters, and 9 with permanent mistresses. Upoh the whole, 
as it respects Great i^ritain and Ireland, (here \s abundant 
authority for the remark of the British and Forei^rt-i^hooL. 
vSociety in their KUh Report, that ' The system of mutual 
instruction docs not shrink from investigation, I)ut on the 
contrary invites it. Your committee are persuaded, (they 
add,) that the more closely its pretensions are examined, 
the more resplendent its merits will appear, and that, like 
the pure gold in the furnace, it will lose nothing by the 
trial.' 

[Since last year's Report* of the British and Foreign 
School Society, it appears that there have been added to the 
Central Schools 500 boys and 300 girls. Since the com- 
menc-ement of tiie Institution, there have been educated 
10,120 boys, and 7,290 girls— in rdl 24,010. 

There are GO Assistant Schools in London, at which 
10,000 children are educated. 

In Ireland there were at first only 261 schools; to these 
1,500 have been added. The number of children educat- 
ed amounts to 100,000; and 200 masters and 300 mi -tress- 
es, are at present receiving instruction for that country. 

* This nofice is dated in the present year.— £(/. 

5 



50 APPENDIX. 

4he total number of instructers at present is 1,171, among 
whom gratuities to the amount of L 6/250 have been 
distributed. The number of cheap books sold last year 
was 122,000, and since the commencement of the Institu- 
tion, 1,089,703.] 

In inquiring into the progress of this system on the con- 
tinent of Europe, we discover the most unequivocal evi- 
dences of the confidence which enlightened and liberal 
minded men of almost every nation place in its ethcacy as 
a moral and intellectual engine of extraordinary power, 
and therefore worthy of the sanction and patronage of all 
free governments. In Paris, a society has been some years 
in existence for promoting the system in France; and in 
the early stages of its career it was exceedingly successful: 
several hundred schools were established, and the govern- 
ment seemed disposed to lend its aid to a scheme which 
promised to rescue the lower classes from the deplorable 
ignorance in which they are too generally involved. But, 
unhappily, the schools have to struggle under the weight of 
clerical displeasure, and the society seems to be threat- 
ened with annihilation. The spirit of the system has, not- 
withstanding, proved to be congenial w^ith the tastes of the 
French people: many of the schools were in excellent or- 
der, and some parts of the general scheme of mutual 
instruction have been improved by the ingenuity and learn- 
ing of the Savans of that country. 

A society exists at Florence, for the promotion of the 
monitorial system, w'hich has under its patronage several 
large and well conducted schools, and a number of the 
most eminent of the nobility and learned men of Tuscany, 
are deeply interested in the extension and prosperity of 
these schools. 

f'chools upon this plan, are established in all the loniarr 
Islands, in one of which (St. Maura) alone are 12 schools. 

In Switzerland, at least in some of the more liberal can- 



APPENDIX. 5 1 

tons, the system is iii liigh repute and successful opera- 



tion. 



In St. Petersburgh, a model school for 200 boys, has 
been patronised by the emperor, by an annual donation 
of 7000 rubles, and Count Romanzoff is spreading the 
system in the villages of his vast estates. 

In Sweden there are now 67 schools on the Lancasterian 
olan, of which 13 are in the capital. Twenty-two were 
established during the year 1323. 

The same system is making progress in the Nether- 
lands, in Denmark, in the Island of Malta, in British India, 
in Canada, Nova-Scolia, Newfoundland, Bermuda, the 
West Indies, in several parts of Africa, and is now receiv- 
ing the decided support of most of the newly established 
and free governments of South America. 

It is well known, that Joseph Lancaster himself is now 
in Columbia, engaged in the propagation of his system, 
under the liberal support of the authorities there; and that 
President Bolivar, who has travelled in Europe, and is 
without doubt well acquainted with the merits of the sys- 
tem, has lately granted him f20,000, to assist him in his 
operations, with the promise of a larger sum when it may 
be necessary. 

[As a most interesting exhibition of the results of im- 
proved mutual instruction, \ve present the following trans- 
lation from Count Lasteyrie's Nouveau Systeme D'Educa- 
tion, given in the appendix to Dr. Griscom's Monitorial 
In.^tLUction, forming the substance of an interesting and 
able report made in 1812, by M. Cuvier, on the primary 
schools of Holland. J 

*' It wiil be perceived, that various methods in use m' 
the schools of Holland, for more than thirty years, have 
been adopted in those of Lancaster. The Hollanders 
v/isely imitated all the good practices which were existing, 
or had existed before the epoch in which they founded their 
primary scboob. The author of the report thus proceeds: 



i^2' APPEx^DlX. 

** It Moukl be clifficuh for us to describe the effect pro^ 
(iiiced upon us by the iirst primary school which we enter- 
ed in Holland. It was one of those supported by public 
charity, for the children of the most indigent families, those 
who in many other countries would be obliged to drag out 
a miserable life, on the highways, either as m.endicants or 
robbers. Two large, airy, and well lighted halls contained 
three hundred of these children, all in cleanly condition, 
placing themselves, without disorder, noise, or impolite- 
ness, and performing, at a concerted signal, all that was 
required of them, without the master's uttering, necessa- 
rily, a single word. Not only do they learn by certain and 
ready methods, to read currently, to write a fine hand, and 
with entire correctness to perform mentally and by figures, 
all the calculations necessary in common life, and also to 
state their thoughts, neatly in little essays; but the books 
which are given them, the pieces which they copy, are so 
well arranged, and succeed each other in an order so judi- 
cious; the precepts and examples are mingled with 
so much art, that these children become penetrated, at the 
same time, with the truths of religion, the precepts of mo- 
rality, and all the knowledge which can be useful in active 
life, or consoling to them in misfortune. Care is taken to 
ascertam, by frequent questions, and by exciting them to 
state their difficulties, that nothing of what they read is lost 
upon their understandings. 

'' Finally, prayers and hymns sung in concert, composed 
expressly for the purpose, and breathing the sentiments of 
duty or gratitude, give a charm to this instruction, and at 
the same time impress a religious and tender feeling well 
calculated to confirm their e/iects. A master and two assis- 
tants, taken from the scholars them.selves, govern this 
large number of children v/ithout noise, without invective, 
w'ithout any corporeal punishment, but by keeping them al- 
ways interested and always occupied, 

" The first sight of this school gave us an agreeable aur- 



APPENDIX. 53 

prise: when we had entered into nil the details we could 
not avoid a real emotion, in thinking on what these chil- 
dren would have become, if abandoned to themselves, and 
what they actually were; but, we said to ourselves, this is 
perhaps a solitary example, produced by the efforts of a 
wealthy city, or by the zeal of a £ew citizens of extraordi- 
nary generosity, 

" We were informed, however, that as we advanced 
through the country, we should divest ourselves of this er- 
ror; and, in fact, we found every where the primary schools 
upon the same footing with the exception of those in which 
the masters, /rc^m age or habit, could owt disengage themselves 
from their old routine. It is not even in the cities that they 
are the best. Even on the frontiers of Groningen, and 
many leagues from the great road, we found, in the villa- 
ges, primary schools as numerous, and better composed, 
and better kept than those of the largest towns; because, 
in the cities, the children of the rich are taught in their 
own houses, whereas in the villages they go to school with 
others: but every where we observed the same cheerful- 
ness, the same decency, the same neatness in the pupils 
and the masters; and every where the same instruction. 

" What is the most remarkable on this subject is, that these 
great results have been obtained in a few years, and by 
simple means, without constraint, without requiring of the 
masters any sacrifice, and without uniting them by any other 
means than by their natural obligations as public functiona- 
ries. A brief recital of this important operation belongs es- 
sentially to our subject. 

" Thirty years ago, the little schools of Holland resem- 
bled those of other countries. Masters, almost as ignorant 
as those they were bound to instruct, were scarcely suc- 
cessful, in the course of several years, in teaching their 
pupils to read and write indifferently. These schools had 
no general superintendents; the greater number originated 
in private speculation; various religious communions sun- 
5^- 



54 



APPENDi:Jt. 



ported schools for their own poor under the supervision ot 
deacons, but these schools were exclusively reserved for 
the children of the parish; those whose parents were not 
inscribed in some church had no resources; even the ca- 
tholics had no schools, though their churches were so nume- 
rous in the country; the deacons of the reformed churches 
changing, agreeably to a certain order, had no fixed prin- 
ciples. The result of all this was, that a great part of the 
youth were stagnating in ignorance and immorality. 

" The first ameliorations were produced by the efforts of 
a benevolent society called the ^ Society of Public Good,' 
which itself owed its formation to the zeal of a pious and 
humane individual. 

" John Neuven-Huysen, a Mennonite minister, at Mo- 
nikendam, in North Holland, perceived that the numerous 
associations formed in the United Provinces for the ad- 
Tancement of commerce, and science, and charity, although 
they contributed to spread among the people moral and re- 
ligious ideas, did not produce all the effects which were 
desired, because the works which they published were too 
extended, too learned, and too dear to be purchased by 
those for whom they were destined, and because there ex- 
isted no point of connection sufficiently intimate between 
them and that portion of the people to whom their assist- 
ance v/as the most necessary. 

" Having conceived apian more simple, and a procedure 
more direct, he began about 1784, to associate with him 
a few friends: these attracted others: the utility of the thing 
once known, multiplied the number of members, so that, 
from 1785, they were obliged to divide the association ac- 
eording to the cantons in which was the greatest num-*- 
ber of subscribers. These divisions were called depart- 
merts; each of which had its own administration, and the 
number of them extended as the society increased. In 
truth, the advantages of the institution were so apparent to 
obaritable men; and the various governments which sue- 



APPENDIX. 55 

ceeded each other in Holland shared so fully in the pub- 
lic persuasion, that it enjoyed a continually increasing 
prosperity, and in 1 809 it included more than 7000 mem- 
bers. 

" The early funds of the society were employed in en- 
couraging by premiums the composition of little works which 
treated in a popular manner of the most important truths of 
religion and morality. To these were added by degrees, 
publications on the principles most important to be under- 
stood, of domestic and rural economy, natural philosophy, 
and hygiene, or the preservation of health. Some of them 
treated of particular professions, not neglecting even the pro- 
pagation of vaccination and instruction in midwifery: The 
effect of these works, simple, short and cheap, was soon 
apparent. There was in Holland, as in other places, a 
popular work styled ' the Shepherd's Almanac,' filled with 
puerile prescriptions derived from astrology; and as in 
other places the country people wished no other. The 
society prepared a Calendar, in which these follies were 
displaced by useful observations on agriculture, or conver- 
sations on health; and its success was such that in two or 
three years, the editor of the Shepherd's Almanac was 
obliged to renounce his publication. 

" In the mean while, education was the principal object 
of the studies and operation of the ' Society of Public 
Good,' and the history of its labors in this respect may be 
divided into three distinct branches: 1st. The researches 
which it excited, on the physical education of children as 
well as on the best method of instruction and moral educa- 
tion. 2d. The preparation of elementary books, to aid in 
putting these methods in practice. 3d. The schools which 
it founded, not with the intention of holding them perma- 
nently, and still less of assuming the general charge of 
primary intruction, but to offer temporarily to common 
schools, models by which they might attain to greater per- 
fection. 



56 APPENDIX. 

" Besides these schools, which are destined only for 
those children which the members of the society might 
place in them, some of its departments actually established 
giatuitous schools for the poorj and the greater number of 
them formed little libraries, with the view oi affording the 
workmen and workwomen, alter quitting the schools, the 
means of rational and profitable entertaintnent. 

" Various towns excited by the example and encourage- 
ment of the society, undertook the renovation and exten- 
sion of their schools. It was thus that the magistiates of 
Amsterdam, following, in 1797, the advice of the two de- 
partments of that city, undertook the erection of their no- 
ble schools for the benefit of the poor that were not en- 
registered in any church, — schools which now include 
(1812) more than 4000 children of both sexes.* 

"■ But in 1801, 1803, and 1806, the general government 
gave to the society testimonials of its esteem and conform- 
ed to the advice of many of its members, in the measures 
it adopted, at those three periods, for the reform and ge- 
neral organisation of primary instruction. 

" The law of the third of April, 1806, is still the regula- 
tion by which all the primary schools are governed, 

" The number of schools and pupils is already very re- 
markable. There were in Holland at the time of the union 
4451 primary schools of all classes, and more than 190,000 
pupils, for a population of one million nine hundred thou- 
sand souls; which constitutes onwe-tenth of the inhabitants, 
and proves that the greater part of the children of an age 
to go to school are actually in attendance; indeed, several 
of the prefects, especially that of Groningen assured us, 
that at present not a single young man can be found in 
their department that cannot read and write. 

" The formal and regular instruction of the public schools 
consists in Reading, Caligraphy, Orthography, mental and 

* Amsterdam had had from 1746 but two charity schools. I?5 
1{319 theie were eleven.— Z>r. Griscovt. 



Al>PENDIX. 57 

Common Arithmetic, some elements of Drawing, Geometry, 
and Geography, and the singing of hymns. But the books ia 
which the children are made to read, the subjects which 
are dictated to them, the examples which they copy, the 
hymns and cantiqucs which are given them to chant, 
all tend to penetrate their minds, and give them, almost 
insensibly, an intinity of other useful knowledge. 

'•'■ The composition, choice, and gradation of books, con- 
stitute the basis of the system. There is an astonishing 
number of them, each one having had the liberty of 
proposing his own: but M. Vanden-Ende has reduced, 
by order of the minister of the interior, a catalogue of the 
best, which he has distributed agreeably to their contents 
in the order in which they are to succeed each other in 
the classes. 

*' Those to be first used, are accompanied with suitable 
pictures for impressing on the minds of children the know- 
ledge of exterior objects, and or connecting in then* memo- 
ries the words to the ideas which they represent. Next 
follow short moral histories or stories calculated to interest 
them. From these they j^roceed to others which treat of 
those objects of nature which are most curious and useful 
to man, processes of art jnost necessary to be understood, 
and throughout the vvhoie are interspersed, without affec- 
tation, useful reflections on Providence, and on tlie duties 
of men to each ether. Sacred Instory, profane history, and 
the history of the country, treated in sucii a v/ay as to take 
with children, are the s'll.yecta of other little works. In 
some of them are explained the principles of civil and cri- 
minal law In teaching them to drav/, or rather to trace 
regular lines, they are made to judge of length and of an- 
gles by the eye; and equal care is taken to render all their 
other exercises practical, and subservient to the purposes 
of morality and utility. 

" Tlie consequence is, that children thus taught have 
engraven on their minds, while simply learning to read^ 



58 APPENDIX. 

write, and calculate, things which the scholar's of ordinary 
schools never learn, or learn only with difficulty when their 
profession permits them to read, after leaving school, and 
which inspire them with just and nohle sentiments, which 
the world will doubtless weaken, but of which it will never 
entirely efface the impression. 

" Almost as much has been written for teachers as for 
scholars; the method which they are to follow, and the 
questions they are to put to their scholars, are pointed out 
in each of their respective works. 

*' The means contrived for instructing in religion chil- 
dren of every different persuasion, without exposing them 
to dangerous controversies, is exceedingly ingenious, and 
at the same time truly respectable. The particular dog- 
mas of each christian communion are treated on Sundays 
by each minister in his church. The history of the New 
Testament, the life and doctrine of Jesus Christ, and the 
dogmas in which christians agree, are explained in the 
schools on Saturdays, when no Jews are present on ac- 
count of their sabbath; but the truths common to all re- 
ligions, are intimately interwoven with all the branches of 
instruction; and to these the others all stand related. 

" The distribution of time is generally two hours in the 
morning, and two hours in the afternoon for ordinary scho- 
lars; and two hours in the evening for young people that 
have left school, and gnae to some occupation, but are 
still desirous to be perfected in what they have learned. 
This evenijig school is an institution of the greatest utility, 
not only conwrming the benf^tits of the other, but also 
withdrawing the youth from infinite sources of disorder and 
corruption. 

" It remains to be stated, how it is, that so many children 
are taught at once to read and write, a thing so difficult, 
that it is hard to imagine, at an advanced age, how it could 
have been acquired in childhood. 

" The smallest scholars are placed on benches one b» 



APPENDIX, 59 

hind another^ and opposite to a black board. The master 
has his letters on small blocks which he attaches success- 
ively to the board, by grooves or any other mechanism. 
That which strikes and amuses children most, is best. He 
directs their attention to the form of each letter, and teach- 
es them its sound, beginning with the vowels, and proceed- 
ing to the simple sounds of the diphthongs, and then to con- 
sonants, simple or compound, which are designated by 
their sounds, by adding only an e mute. Forty or fifty 
children look on at once, and pronounce together; and re- 
peat in the same manner when prepared, easy s_yllables and 
w^ferds vvhich the master exhibits to tiiem in the same man- 
ner. The ignorant are thus taught without the weariness 
of personal attention, and without the risk of being scolded. 
Whole words are read together in chorus; and it is then 
only that books are given to them, and they are made to 
read singly: in this exercise, they are even made to read 
at hazard, in order that the eyes of all may be obliged to 
follow tiie reader.* 

" Writing follows nearly the same process: forty or fifty 
children, furnished with little slates and pencils of talc, 
follow with their eyes Vvhatever the master traces on the 
large board. Jb roui simple strokes they are conducted to 
letters, and thence, (as soon as they can name them,) to 
syllables and words, at first agreeably to the model, and 
atterwards from dictation. As tiiey advance in orthogra- 
phy, they are exercised in correcting, verbally, phrases 
purposely written v/ith faults, upon the board. Questions 
are finally put to them, which they are obliged to answer 
in writing, and thus they are led on to the art of composing 

* It is almost needless to remark, that the manner in which reading 
i? taught in the schools of Holland, hears a near resemhlance to that of 
Ijanca'^ler. It is the same wilfi writing, but with tijis in^portant diffe- 
rence, that in the new method, reading and writing are simultaneously 
taught, and consequently the children experience less ditficulty, and 
learn more rapidly. — Dr. Griscom. 



CO APPENblJi. 

letters and such other essays as the people have occasion 
to practice. 

'' We have stated that while they are learning to read and 
write, the choice of their lessons affords them an infinite 
number of usetul ideas. Care is taken to impress these 
ideas on their minds by questions varied and repeated in 
every form. Other questions lead them to the definition 
and propriety of terms, and to the distinguishing of apparent 
synonymes and homonymes. Upon none of these subjects 
is the master abaijdoned to his own imagination, for the 
numerous books furnish him with all possible questions. 

^' In geography, they commence with the plan of their 
own city or town, drawn upon a large scale on the wail, and 
they are made to distinguish the cardinal points and direc- 
tions of the streets. They are next shown a map of their 
canton, then of their province, and thus by degress they pro- 
ceed to the map of the world. All tiiese maps are large, 
and but few places are marked upon them in order that their 
first ideas may not become confused; and it is only ttwards 
the conclusion that they are taught from common map?. 
A summary idea of the sphere finishes geography, instead 
of commencing it, as in almost ail our books. 

" What is the most astonishing, is the calmness and ra- 
pidity with which all this is executed. The master has 
scarcely need to speak except to ask his questions. l he 
pupils have signs for every thing which they v, ish to ask 
for. When a question is put, ail those whj think they can 
answer it, raise a finger, and the master selects the res- 
pondent: in a word, nothing is heard but what the lesson 
rigorously requires. 

'^ This tranquillity and decency of manner, are one of 
the principal objects of education. All the children are 
obliged to present themselves with hands and faces washed. 
In coming in, even the smallest know how to slide into 
their places without saying a word. In the schools for the 
poor, where they are furnished with books and paper, the 



APt>ENDIX. 6 1 

tirst on each bench, at the end of the lesson collects all that 
has been employed on his bench: m the other schools each 
child has a little box in which he places his own articles, 
and their ambition is excited to keep every thing in the best 
order. Not even a hat nail is lett neglected by Dutch pre- 
cision. 

" These details may appear trifling, but there are none 
of them which do not tend to influence the habits of a 
whole life. Far then from despising or neglecting them, 
we should incline to study more profoundly all the circum- 
stances connected with them, v/ell persuaded that a vast 
number of these particulars ought to be spread into all the 
schools of the empire, where they would produce the most 
marked effects upon the manners of the lower classes. 

''The attention of so great a number of children is sup- 
ported by two principal means. The first consists in the 
choice of what is said to them, and n endeavoiing to in- 
terest them. In the commencement the teachers play with 
them; and when once they can read, instead of giving 
them, as with us, only one book, and which very often they 
cannot understand, a variety is presented to them, which 
always contains something new, and adapted to their age. 
The second means is a mild emulation, which is carefully 
preserved from degenerating into unkindness. The first 
scholar of each bench keeps a list of the good or bad an- 
swers of each of the others, and of all their faults. This 
statement is every day posted up, and the account of each 
day noted at the end of the week. When the town 
committee, or the superintendent of the Caron arrives, they 
give to the best scholar certificates which they show to 
their parents. At the end of the year, also, examinations 
are made and prizes given. A wise emp-oyment of these 
means has justified the entire abolition of corporeal pun- 
ishments. 

"One thing, however, shocked our habits in the Dutch 
schools; and that is that girls are admitted along with the 
6 



62 APPENDIX. 

boys. But we were everywhere assured, that no inconve- 
nience from it had ever been remarked; and as this cus- 
tom prevails not only in the schools for the poor, but in all 
the village schools, where parents pay a good price for tu- 
ition, and where they might of course otherwise dispose of 
their children, we have been obhged to give faith to this 
testimony. 

"Children on leaving these schools are much sought af- 
ter, both for domestic servants and apprentices to trades; 
a proof that their education stands high in public estima- 
tion. 

" Nothing further remains with respect to the history of 
primary instruction, than to explain in what manner schools 
so numerous can be furnished with masters sufficiently ca- 
pable; and it is here in a particular manner that the es- 
tablished system manifests itself in all its fecundity. 

" They have no need of normal classes, nor of semina- 
ries for school masters, nor of any expensive or complica- 
ted means contrived in other countries. It is in the pri- 
mary schools themselves that masters are formed, and that 
without requiring any particular expense. The Society of 
Public Good has also the merit of having first contrived 
this simple and efficacious method. It grants to the best 
pupils gratuitous instruction, and permits them to remain 
in the schools two or three years longer than others, on 
condition of their engaging in the business of instruction. 
As the condition of school masters has become, by degrees, 
more honorable and lucrative, as the schools have advan- 
ced in improvement, the number of competitors has in- 
creased in the same proportion. Those two or three ad- 
ditional years of study, are employed in the enlargement 
and perfection of their knowledge; and these young peo- 
ple afterwards become assistants to their masters, and 
teach the younger scholars; they then pass to the station of 
sub-masters; and as the inspectors of the Cantons are con- 



APPENDIX. 63 

Slant witnesses of their zeal and success, they recommend 
them according to their merit, to places which may be va- 
cant, and continue to watch over them for their advance- 
ment agreeably to their deserts. When there is no other 
mode of nomination, a rivalship of skill is instituted; and 
then their merit alone recommends them. The career is 
so certain, that there are some, as we have been told, who 
pay for the privilege of commencing their trade under good 
masters. 

^' It was in 1800 that this method was employed for the 
first time in the free schools of Amsterdam, and there have 
already been obtained a first master, eight first sub-mas- 
ters, and all the adjuncts actually on duty. Many instructers 
have also issued from these schools for places in other 
cities and villages." 

We may cite, saysDr.Griscom, as particular evidences of 
the success of the monitorial method — when applied to what 
are called the higher branches of education — the examples 
of the Charter House School in London, and of the High 
School in Edinburgh, in both of which the monitorial system 
has been thoroughly tried in its application to the study of 
Latin and Greek. Dr. Bell observes, (Elements of Tuition, 
part III. p. 249,) '^ I have this day attended the annual ex- 
amination of the Charter House School, in the presence of 
Dr. Fisher, master of the Charier House, &c. &c., by the 
chaplains of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury; and 
can state that the three upper forms, taught, as well as the 
rest of the school, by monitors, were examined in the high- 
er Greek and Roman classics; and that every member of 
these classes proved himself fully master of every book 
which he had read. The examination, altogether, was in 
the highest degree satisfactory to the examiners, and most 
gratifying to my feelings. The school has grown in num- 
ber thirty scholars since last year, and is in a most flour- 
ishing state. 

*^ it is still made a question," observes Dr. Belh " wheth- 



(34 viPFENDIX'. 

er or not the new system is applicable to schools of a higher 
ilescription and especially to Grammar Schools. Indeed 
it is frequently alleged, that this mode of tuition will not 
apply to classical schools: just as I was often told, on my 
-arrival from India, that it would do very well under the 
government of Madras, in the torrid zone, and with the 
children of the eastern world; but not in this free country, 
in a temperate climate, and with the children of the charity 
schools of England. 

" The latter objection is completely done away by facts: 
and the fleet career of the Madras system, in the first stage 
of its course, has outstript even my sanguine expectation, 
who have uniformly looked forward to its silent and gra- 
dual progress, and ultimate diffusion over the world." 

" The former objection, as to grammar schools, I am 
persuaded, needs only be submitted to the same test of re- 
peated and continued experience to be also done away." 

But the exa-r.ple of the High School of Edinburgh under 
the Rectorship of Mr. (now professor) Pillans, affords the 
most unequivocal evidence of the benefits to be derived 
from the application of the new system to the acquisition 
of lang sage. In that school the number of scholars at the 
time alluded to, was nearly 900: the whole being divided 
into five classes, four of which are under as many sepa- 
rate masters, and the higher under the immediate charge 
of the Rector. This school was founded exclusively for 
instruction in the Latin language, and to this the attention 
of the masters is chiefly confined. Dr. Alex. Adam who 
preceded Mr. Pillans, introduced the study of Greek and 
Ancient Geography, and the practice is continued by his 
successors. When Mr. Pillans commenced his Rector- 
ship, his class consisted of 144 which (he observes) might 
be considered an average one, for that period. His last 
class, the largest he ever had, (that of 1819 — "^0) contain- 
ed 285. 

The Monitorial System was introduced by this gentleoian 



APPENDIX. 



65 



from a conviction of its power; and no other proof of its 
efficacy need be asked than the extraordinary success 
which attended his Rectorship, during a period of ten 
years, and until his removal to the university. 

" On entering on my office" says Mr. P. " though the 
class was not so numerous as at present, by one hundred, 
yet I felt very sensibly the inconvenience of prescribmg 
business for a set of pupils, between the best and worst of 
whom the difference was so great, that the lessons which 
were too easy for the one, were too difficult for the other. 
I found also that when such a number of boys are together 
in a class, the spirit of emulation is apt to languish, both 
because it is utterly impossible to examine each boy daily, 
and because it signified little to a boy whether he stood 
one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty from the 
head of the general class." 

" This experience which must be that of every teacher, 
who undertakes to manage a large class without assist- 
ance, led to the systematic adoption of monitors and small 
divisions." 

The monitors are chosen, and the whole class arranged in- 
to divisions, in the following judicious manner: — " The first 
fortnight of the teaching year, which begins the first of Oc- 
tober, is employed in such examinations and exercises in 
the general class as give an opportunity for talent and ac- 
quirement to display themselves, and mount towards the 
top of the class. When the cleverest boys have risen to 
the head, the highest 25, (supposing the class to consist of 
250,) are taken as monitors, and one more to act as general 
monitor, and the remainder are divided among them at the 
rate of 9 to each, in such a manner that the highest boy, 
or c/nx, has the 27th and 8 succeeding boys; the 2d dux 
the oGth and 8 below, and so on to the 25th from the top, 
who has the 8 lov/est in the class of his division. Some- 
times this is vfiried by giving the head boy the lowest di- 
vision, and thus reversing the order of appointment. The 
6^ 



m 



APPENDIX. 



monitors are in this way brought into contact with every 
part of their less advanced school-fellows. This not only- 
makes the boys better acquainted with one another, but it 
gives the rector an additional means of judging of the moni- 
tor's qualifications, by comparing the order and progress of 
the same divisions under ditferent monitors. At the close 
of the year, (observes the rector,) I have not unirequently 
allotted a prize book to the monitor who should be 
adjudged by the greatest number of his school-fellows' 
votes, to have discharged his duties throughout the year 
with the greatest temper and ability; nor have I ever found 
the judgements of the majority to differ from my own. 
The monitors remain attached to the divisions to which 
they are appointed for one fortnight; at the end of which 
they give up a general and neatly digested account in wri- 
ting of the behavior and progress of their pupils, recording 
those who have risen to higher divisions, or fallen into low- 
er, during their incumbency. The reading aloud of the 
most remarkable of these results, is a powerful stimulus 
to exertion and good conduct. In the new appoit^tm^ent, 
the 25 are taken as before, but do not consist entirely of 
the same boys, or in the same order; for the daily exami- 
nation and skirmishing of question and answer, has pro- 
bably made considerable alterations; those below the 25 
having all along strained every nerve to raise themselves 
within the envied rmmber, and thus to have the honor, (for 
it is esteemed a high one,) of being appointed monitors on 
the approaching occasion. 

The great opportunity which the system of monitorifil 
divisions gives the master of becoming acquainted with the 
temper, habits, and talents of every boy, even of so great 
a number, is worthy of remark. The rector is confident 
that he can learn more of each boy's character out of 250, 
than he could have done, upon the former plan of educa- 
tion, with a class of 100. While the lessons are going on 
in divisions, his principal employment is to hear appeals. 



APPENDIX. 67 

(that is, when a monitor dechnes to decide a point, and it 
is referred to him,) and to go about from division to divis- 
ion, watching the progress and behavior both of boys and 
monitors. A thousand circumstances occur in the divis- 
ions, such as boys becoming too keen and loud in their dis- 
cussions, monitors betraying a Uttle impatience. Sec, which 
afford endless opportunities for the master to attach himself 
to a particular division, and by a little good humored rally- 
ing, doing more to teach them the command of their 
temper, mutual forbearance, gentleman-like conduct, and 
other virtues, than could be effected by formal lectures, or 
severe punishments. The good effects of the system upon 
the monitors, are very apparent. Instead of sitting restless 
and yawning, after the first translations of the lesson, as the 
higher boys on the common system generally do, while the 
same thing is said over and over in the lower parts of the 
class, he is now placed in a responsible situation of power 
and trust, where he not only has occasion to show himself 
thoroughly master of the lesson, but is called upon to exer- 
cise temper, judgement, firmness without harshness, and a 
variety of other virtues, which will be of the utmost impor- 
tance to him in future life. 

'' The discussions also that take place here among the 
pupils, on the precise import of words, the propriety of 
translation, and the more elementary questions of the gen- 
der and flexions of nouns, conjugations of verbs, or the 
quantity of syllables, are of a nature to sharpen their fac- 
ulties, and give them the ready use and habit of applying 
them, much more than in the common mode of conducting 
business in a large general class. In the latter, the ipse 
dixit of the master closes all discussion and doubt; and the 
boy is employed, not in questioning, but in receiving and 
treasuring in his memory what he hears. But he does not 
think himself bound to receive what a boy, in most respects 
his equal, may affirm, if it should not coincide with his own 
ideas. Lest, however, this discussion should be too fre- 



68 A1>PENDIX. 

quent or prolonged, the moraitor has power to stop it by 
saying, ' Go on with the lesson;' and if a boy still thinks 
himself aggrieved, he has liberty to make his appeal to the 
master. Phe same advantages have been found to ac- 
crue from the monitor's having the correction of the versions 
or written exercises of their divisions. These exercises 
generally consist of translations, either from Latin into En- 
glish, or English into Latin. The passage is one with which 
the monitors are, or are made to be, famihar. General 
directions are given by the master as to the principles of 
correction. The monitors take them home, and return 
them the next day, with thtir remarks and corrections, and 
a summary of their errors. When the exercises are re- 
turned to their owners in divisions, a {"ew minutes are 
allowed lor the boys to look at the marks, and either to 
admit the justice of them, or to ask an explanation from 
the monitor; and this produces a great circulation of 
knowledge, both as to the true meaning of the passage, 
and the spelling and grammatical propriety of their own 
language. Sometimes, when time will allow, the mon- 
itors who are next each other in the general class, are 
ordered to exchange the versions they have had, that 
they may detect each other's errors of omission or 
commission; and though in this way errors may escape 
detection, and others may be marked which are not mate- 
rially wrong, the general result, in promoting free discus- 
sion and researches into the reasons of things, is much 
more beneficial than if the master were to correct the whole 
himself In that case, the boy would scarcely take the 
trouble to look at the corrections at all. When this inqui- 
ry has ended, each boy is ordered to have his corrected 
exercise under his book, to show to the master as he goes 
round among the divisions. In making this tour, he set- 
tles places for the exercises by inspection and information 
from the monitor; and in this summary way it is not diffi- 
cult to detect bad writing and ill-done exercises, and con- 



APPENDIX. 69 

(iemn the culprit to loss of place and an additional exer- 
cise. This method would not answer with exercises of a 
higher description, such as Latin and English verses, 
themeSj analyses of Livy, &ic., which the rector therefore 
examines and corrects himself. 

" In this account of the benefits of monitorial divisions, 
it is by no means intended to undervalue the importance of 
general prelection and instruction. They react on each 
other so powerfully, that each makes the other more effi- 
cient than they could be singly. 

" In the general class, therefore, when all are assembled 
in compact order and in perfect silence, that information is 
conveyed which is afterwards to be distributed and more 
deeply impressed in divisions. 1 he mit^takes ccoimitted 
there are rectitied, the monitors themselves are ssfted, and 
examined in every variety of way, and the tone and direc- 
tion are given them as to their mode of condiictiiig the di- 
visions. The time of the school is nearly equally divided 
between general and monitorial instruction; and the very 
act of moving into divisions and back, once or twice a day, 
has a considerable eflect in amusing the mind and relievi' g 
the body, and has in fact banished almost entirely, the pro- 
verbial ennui and lisflessness of school. 

" It is another, and not the least glorious triumph of this 
system of teaching, in a country where the lash has been so 
long established, as the legitimate instrument of instruction, 
that it has been gradually diminishing the use of the rod, 
and that for the last two years it has banished it entirely; 
and I now, (observes the rector,) feel quite confident, 
that I shall never more have recourse to this clumsy and 
ineffectual mode of excitement and punishment. 

Dr. Griscom''s Monitorial Instruction,* 

* It is to be regietied thiit this work is not more widely circulated 
in New-}-;n£:land. The extracts contained in this appendix will, it is 
hoped, induce all teachers who are in the spirit of improvement, to give 
Dr. G!iscora\s volume ao early and thorough perusal, — £(/. 



70 APPENDIX. 



BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF MUTUAL INSTRUCTIOJI 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The following matter is chiefly extracted 'from pamphlets 
and other publications which have appeared in various parts 
of this country, but which are not all accessible to individ- 
uals in particular places. It v/as thought that perhaps the 
best argument for the new system of instruction would be 
the intelligence of its rapid and extensive introduction in 
schools and seminaries of every kind, in all parts of the 
country. 

Monitorial Schools in JVeiv-York. 

We commence with the High School of New-York, 
under the care of Messrs. Griscom and Barnes — an insti- 
tution justly esteemed one of the most favorable specimens 
of a seminary conducted on the plan of mutual instruction. 

^ The High-School was opened on the first of March, with 
more than two hundred pupils; and in the month of May 
their number had increased to at least six hundred and 
fifty. 

The extreme heat of the summer drove a considerable 
number of the pupils to the country. The rooms of the 
school were all fdled shortly after the re-opening of the 
school, subsequent to the summer vacation, and there is 
now on the list of applicants a considerable number who 
cannot be admitted. 

The number now in school is six hundred and fifty, that 
being the complement. 

In the introductory department, all the students are en- 
gaged in similar studies. Their progress has been very 
gratifying, and in some instances quite remarkable. This 
department exhibits an air of order, attention, activity, and 
contentment, which has satisfied and delighted every indi- 
vidual who has visited it. Many of the children, who, 



APPENDIX. 7 1 

when they began, could not write a letter, already write a 
fair hand, and have been promoted to the study of the sim- 
ple rules of arithmetic. 1 he greater part of these children 
commit and recite arithmetical tables every day, and up- 
wards of 130 cipher. All of these children are taught 
some portions of natural history and geography, in which 
they leceive much valuable knowledge from familiar lec- 
tures, with the aid of pictures and maps. The children 
are ke-.t constantly occupied, without fatiguing their atten- 
tion for too long a time with one thing. Even their inces- 
sant restlessness and activity are turned to account by the 
discipline and exercises of the school. It is hardly possible 
to enter the school without perceiving that what is com- 
monly called a love of mischief in children, is in fact a love 
ot mental occupation. They are taught with the utmost 
simplicity; and their good feelings and ailections are called 
forth by the unwearied tenderness and parental kindness of 
their in&truclers. Wihul and continued disobedience is 
scarcely knov,rn. In short, the experiment which has been 
made in the introductory department has been more suc- 
cessful than could have been anticipated; and the Trustees 
recommend to the Society with the fullest confidence to 
entrust their children to the institution at a very early age. 

The studies pursued in the Junior Department, are. 
Spelling, Reading, Peniijanship, Elocution, Arithmetic, 
Geography, sketching Maps, English Grammar, Linear 
Drawing, and Composition. The monitorial method has 
triumphed over all the obstacles it had to encounter in the 
first organisation of this school. The Trustees are satis- 
fied that a fair comparison between this school and any 
one conducted upon different principles, will evince the 
great superiority of its method of instruction over every 
other that has been tried. 

In the Senior Department, all who enter the school do 
not intend to remain for the same period of time — and 
many who leave it expect to enter immediately upon the 



72 APPENDIX. 

active business of life. It is very plain that these circum- 
stances must require corresponding classifications of schol- 
ars and of studies. 

Some pursuits are nevertheless common to all. All the 
scholars in this department attend to Spelling, Writing, 
Arithmetic, Geography, Elocution, Composition, Drawing, 
Philosophy, Natural History, and Book-keeping. Philos- 
ophy and Natural History are taught chiefly by lectures 
and by questions; and these branches, together with Elo- 
cution, and Composition, are severally attended to, one day 
in every week. 

The usual Latin and Greek Classics are read, such as 
Csesar, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Xenophon and Homer. A 
large class study French, and a few pursue Spanish ; class- 
es of from 6 to 20 are engaged in Book-keeping, and in 
the various branches of Matliematics, such as Mensuration, 
Geometry, Trigonometry, and Algebra. 

The Trustees might particularise some bright examples 
of extraordinary acquirement; but they forbear to do so — 
and content themselves with saying that the general pro- 
gress of both the Senior and Junior Departments affords 
the most conclusive evidence that the Monitorial system of 
instruction is capable of being adapted to the higher as well 
as the lower branches of education. 

It is the opinion of those who have had the most expe- 
rience, and the best means of judging, that they have never 
known so great proficiency made in the same period of 
time, as has been made in the upper departments of the 
High School. 

In all these studies the method of mutual instruction has 
been brought into operation, and has satisfied the sanguine 
expectations which were formed of its efficiency. 

Instruction is multiplied in this way almost indefinitely, 
so that it may be said that a teacher who gives but six hours 
instruction in a day, multiplies them to 120 v/ith the help of 
20 monitors. The two great instruments of learning, at' 



APPENDIX. 73 

tention, and emulation, are made to act with the greatest 
poGsible power. 

To this it may be added, that boys often possess the pow- 
er of communicating their ideas to those of their own age 
with more facihty than those who have forgotten the pro- 
cesses by which they acquired their knowledge. 

Lectures are given to the boys of the Senior department 
once a week on Experimental i'hilosophy, with the aid of a 
good apparatus. The method adopted to give precision 
and accuracy of knowledge on the subjects of these lectures, 
and to impress them on the memory, has been attended 
with the happiest results. A series of questions has been 
framed embracing all the main principles and facts intend- 
ed to be illustrated. These questions are dictated to the 
scholars, who v/rite thetn simultaneously on slates. They 
are then answered by the Professor, and illustrated, if ne- 
cessary, by experiment. 

These questions are afterwards copied by the boys into 
their books. The whole school is divided once a-week for 
this object, into sections of eight, each having a monitor. 
The monitors repeat these questions to their classes, and 
receive their answers. The number of correct and of in- 
correct answers which each boy gives is noted in the moni- 
tor's book. In this way the intelligence and progress of 
each boy are ascertained. 

The success of the High School having been entirely 
satisfactory, a considerable number of stockholders were 
anxious that a similar Institution should be provided for 
Females. A meeting of the Society v/as therefore called, 
and it was unanimously resolved to purchase ground, and 
erect a building of dimensions sufficient to accommodate 
400 scholars. 

The Trustees accordingly purchased a lot 72 feet by 
100, in Crosby, near Spring-street, in the vicinity of the 
edifice for boys, on which they have erected a brick build- 
7 



74 APPENDIX. 

ing of three stories, 44 feet by 60. The cost of the 
ground, the building, and its furniture, will be about 
1 18,000. 

The terms and course of instruction in the Female High 
School, (which was opened on the tirst of February last,) 
are as follows: 

Introductory Dtpartmcnt. 

Miss Charlotte Gardner, Miss Sarah Belch, Teachers. 

The Alphabet — Spelling — Reading — Writing on slates 
— Writing on paper — Elementary Branches of Arithmetic 

Grammar Geography, principally by Puaps — some 

branches of Natural History, and plain Needlework. 

Junior Department. 

Mrs. Sarah L. Rainsford, Miss Parmki,a Roehins, Teachers. 

Spelling — Reading — Definitions — Writing — Geography 
• — English Grammar — Arithmetic, mental and mechanical, 
as far as through the Rules of Proportion — Conti uaiice of 
Natural History — ^Linear Drawing — Use of the Globes and 
Maps — Plain Sewing — Marking — Cutting out and Making 

Female Dresses. 

Senior Deparlmenl. 

Miss Sarah Starr, Mi?s Eliza E. Clark, Teachers. 

Spelling Reading Definitions — Writing — English 

Grammar, Composition — Geography, with the use of Maps 
and Globes — Mapping — higher Arithmetic — the three first 
Books of Euclid — Book Keeping — Moral Philosophy — 
History, and Belles Lettrv^s. Fine and ornamental Needle- 
work — French Language — Drawing and Painting — Lec- 
tures on Astronomy —Natural Philosophy, and Natural 
History. 

MONITORIAL SCHOOLS IN BOSTON. • 

[In this city, the zeal and indefatigable industry of an 
individual have brought the merits of the system of mutual 
instruction before the Httention of the public; and the re- 



APPENDIX. 75 

suit has been not only the distinguished success of his own 
school, but the adoption of the monitorial system in seve- 
ral other flourishing seminaries; and so decided is the pub- 
lic approbation of the new method, that it has been adopted 
in several of the public schools, and will probably be in- 
troduced in all. 

We begin with the school under the charge of Mr. Wil- 
liam B. Fowle, the gentleman to whom we have just alladedj 
and to whom the publishers are indebted for the first part 
of this Manual] 

In their First Biennial Report the Trustees of the 
above school say. More than two years have elapsed since 
the establishment of this school; and its success has equal- 
led the most sanguine expectations. Much is due to the 
able and indefatigable labors of the instructer, who has 
been obliged not only to pursue an untried path, but to do 
so with little aid from the experience or labors of others. 
The result of the experinient is a full conviction that the 
system is perfectly adapted to general use; and the hope 
is entertained that it will soon be extensively adopted. 

[From the Appendix to the above Keport we extract the 
following paragraphs] 

A prospectus of this school was published in the spring 
of ]S\IS, in which the object of its founders was stated, in 
as delinite a manner as circumstances would permit. This 
paper was circulated among the friends of improvement; 
and a meeting of gentlemen, interested in the subiect, was 
held at the Exchange CofTee-House, on the 16th May of 
the same year. The meeting was opened by an able ad- 
dress from George Ticknor, Esq. explanatory of the object 
in view, and the general advantages of the system of mu- 
tual instruction. The society was then organised, and the 
following j;ent}emen were elected: — viz. James Savage, 
President; Jonathan Phillips, Vice-President; Lewis Tap- 
j)an, Treasurer; John S. Foster, Secretary, 

The same gentlemen f'tiU continue in office; except 



7^ APPENDIX. 

Mr. Tappan, who, in retiring, gave place, as treasurer, to 
L^'rancis J. Oliver, Esq. 

The Society was incorporated in June 1824. Its stock 
is divided into 100 shares of ^20; most of which are sold. 

The school was opened with eight scholars, Oct. 14, 
1823. 

[The following is Mr. Fov/le's account of his method of 
instruction: it forms part of the Heport mentioned in the 
preceding page: it was inserted in No. T. of the American 
Journal of Education, and was reprinted in the pamphlet 
entitled First Biennial Report, &c,] 

1 have said that children four vears old are received inte 
our school. For the sake of perspicuity and order, I will 
begin with such a child, and conduct her through all the 
branches yet taught in the school. Every child in school 
is furnished with a slate and pencil, which are considered 
part of the furniture of the school. The first object is to 
teach the alphabet. An A is made on the child's slate by 
another competent child, called a monitor. The child is 
told the name of the letter, and asked to imitate it. Few 
do so without some persuasion; but after the monitor has 
held her hand, and made a few letters for her, the child will 
never need such assistance again. Her first rude attempts 
are praised, she feels proud of her work, and ambitious to 
go on. After making perhaps fifty As, she is shown a B, 
told its name, and encouraged to imitate it. In this way, 
she will learn to make and name three or four letters in 
two hours; but, lest she should be tired of this exercise, 
she is shown a book, and asked to pick out As and Bs, or 
such letters as she has been writing. In this w ay, the al- 
phabet is easily taught, in one month; whereas on the old 
plan, from four ta six months are consumed in learning the 
names of the letters, to say nothing of being able to write 
them. The child then takes the spelling-book, and writes 
words of two letters; pronouncing them frequently after 



APPENDIX. V / 

lier monitor. In this way she soon becomes acquainted 
with the fbiu- pages of her spelling-book, which succeed 
the alphabet, and which, in the book we use, contain all 
the combinations of letters, and all the sounds which can 
properly be called English. After she has written her few 
words a sufficient time, she is required to pronounce and 
spell them to her monitor. But this is not her only exer- 
cise; for, young as she is, she is capable of doing some- 
thing in arithmetic. "Fancy" beans are placed before her; 
and she is taught to count them, then to add, subtract, and 
divide them. When tired of this, she is taught to make 
the figures on her slate, as she had done the letters before, 
and then, perhaps, to draw houses and other objects, by 
way of reward. The child is never idle, and never wishes 
to be so. 

She is now required to write words from dictation. This 
is one method of studying the spelling lesson, and is per- 
formed as follows. Each row of desks, (and there are 
eight or ten,) is called a class; and each of these classes 
writes a diiferent word, because eac)i studies a different 
spelling lesson. Each class has had a spelling lesson 
previously assigned; and all sit watching a monitor, called 
the monitor of dictation, who selects a word from the lesson 
of the eighth, or highest class, and spells it very distinct- 
ly. The eighth class immediately commence writing it on 
their slates. The monitor then proceeds to the seventh 
class, and gives them a word from their lesson in the same 
manner, which they write. She then goes to the sixth, 
fifth, and so down to the first class, giving each a word 
from their lesson. By this time the eighth class have writ- 
ten their word, perhaps twice, she gives them another, and 
then does the same to the seventh, and others as before. 
While the slates are filling in this way, a class of children 
who are good spellers and good writers, are stationed, one 
or two in each class, to inspect the slates, and correct er- 
rors and badly formed lettei*s. When the slates are filled, 
7* 



78 APrENDIX. 

they are all cleaned at once; and the dictation again com- 
mences. In this way, the difficult words of the lesson, are 
all written, and exhibited to the eye; and it is impossible 
for any child to avoid going over her lesson at least once. 
The despatch with which words are thus written, may be 
calculated from the fact that the monitor of dictation never 
stops, but goes to each class, in constant rotation, until 
the slates are filled. 

After the words have been written in this manner, the 
children leave their seats at a given signal, and form class- 
es of from four to six, around scholars called spelling moni- 
tors. These are the best spellers in the school, and are 
selected as follows. At the end of each fortnight, all the 
spelling classes are formed in one line, and reviewed by 
the master. They are required to spell every word in the 
lessons of the preceding fortnight, and to take precedence 
as they spell well or ill. After this exercise is ended, the 
highest in the hne are taken for monitors, the ensuing 
fortnight: the four or six next to them form the highest 
class; the four next, the next in rank; and so on, to the low- 
est. When the classes have formed around- their spelling 
monitors, the lesson is spelled in the following manner. 
The monitor pronounces a word distinctly, the highest in the 
class pronounces it after her, to show that she knows what 
it is, and then spells it. If she mistakes, the next points 
out her error, then spells the whole word and ''goes up." 
Then the child who first missed is obliged to spell the word 
as corrected, that she may be profited by losing her place. 
As the number of children in a class is very small, each is 
obliged to spell a great many words, and must necessarily 
pay close attention to the words spelled by her classmates. 
As soon as a child can write words of four or five letters, 
she is required to read. The best readers are selected for 
monitors, by an examination similar to that for spelling 
monitors; and these reading monitors are taught by the 
master. The rest of the scholars are divided into small 



APPENDIX^ 79 

classes of five or six; and, leaving their seats, form a semi- 
circle around the monitor. The children are allowed to 
correct the reader, and " go above her" for so doing; and 
the monitor is required to read often to her class. The 
small number in a class affords each child an opportunity 
of practising much; and the habit of correcting each other 
makes them attentive and, sometimes critically correct. 
The monitors are frequently changed, that if any one has 
communicated an error to her class, her successor may 
detect it. All the classes are reviewed also by the master; 
and the best readers are promoted to be monitors, or to 
rank with higher classes. 

Here I would make one remark which is equally appli- 
cable to every other exercise. Such is the number of 
classes, that every child can be accurately classed with 
her peers, and a fair competition allowed. In schools on 
the old plan, where the classes are sometimes very nume- 
rous, the lowest are necessarily very inferior to the highest; 
and children, when brought into competition with others, 
so greatly their superiors or inferiors, lose all desire to 
excel, because success is hopeless; but when her compet- 
itors arc her equals, or nearly so, the child will seldom re- 
fuse to exert herself. 

The next exercise is arithmetic. I have already said 
that even the youngest is taught to count and perform sim- 
ple operations with beans, her fingers, and such aids. Soon 
a little mental arithmetic is introduced; but, as the excel- 
lent little work of Colburn is too difficult for such small 
children, manuscript questions prepared by the instruct- 
er, are used.* Next Colburn's First Lessons are studied; 
and about the same time, written arithmetic is gradually 
introduced. This, however, is for the present completely 
subordinate to the intellectual. The monitors of arithme- 

* The Child's Arithmetic mentioned at the close of this Appendix, is 
now used for the above purpose. 



80 APPENDIX. 

tic recite to the master, and then disperse to their stations 
to act as monitors. Their classes form around them; and 
the lesson which had previously been set, is recited. If 
any explanations are necessary, the monitor who has gone 
over the ground before, explains; but, if slie is at a loss, 
she applies directly to the master. In tiiis way, the little 
classes get a great deal of practice, and the monitor re- 
views her studies. For the sake of variety they then take 
slates and cipher. The monitor dictates sums verbally, 
and the children are taught to write amounts from dicta- 
tion. They are never allowed to copy sums, and conse- 
quently must acquire a knowledge of numeral ion y as useful 
as it is uncommon. In additi'>ii, the highest adds the first 
column aloud, and tells the rest what to set down and what 
to carry: the next takes the second column, and does the 
same. Any one who corrects another goes above her, as 
in spelling or reading; and, as all must aid in doing the 
sum, the attention of all is secured. It is so with subtrac- 
tion, and all the other rules. The highest scholars cipher 
in Colburn's Sequel, and record their operations in a man- 
uscript. 

In English grammar, the class of monitors recites or 
practises with the master. The first object is to teach chil- 
dren the distinction that exists between words; and in aid 
of the grammar, which is simple and practical, something 
like the following method is adopted. The beginner is 
shown aheap of cards, on each of which is written a word. 
She is required to assort or class the confused heap. She 
finds it impossible. She is desired to pick out every word 
that is the name of any thing. This she will do wdth ease 
and pleasure. The heap is greatly reduced. She is de- 
sired to pick out such as imply c/om/^ something. She will 
do this, and so with all the other classes of words. She 
may then perform the same exercise in a book. She be- 
gins to study her grammar, but advances not a step without 
putting in practice what she learns. It need not be said 



APPENDIX. 81 

fhat before children can parse, they can often speak and 
write correctly. The constant use of a slate and pencil 
naturally leads to written communications with each other. 
Children six years old write very good letters to their play- 
mates; but, as these loose compositions afford no good op- 
portunity for correction, I generally tell the young class a 
short story, and require them to write it on paper in the best 
manner they can. These I correct, and return to them 
with suitable advice. This method relieves them from the 
intolerable labor of writing, when they have nothing to 
write about. The compositions of the upper classes are 
of a different order. 

The process of teaching geography is explained quite 
fully in the text book used by the scholars. This is to 
children a pleasing study, and those who are but five or 
six years old may be usefully engaged in it. A child that 
can imitate a letter, can imitate the outline of a country — 
roughly and badly, to be sure, at first — but sufficiently well 
to fix in her mind the prominent features of it. Her les- 
son requires her to find the important objects of the map 
she is drawing. She finds them, marks them on her little 
map, feels acquainted with them, and proud of the ac- 
quaintance. She begins to measure distances, to compare 
sizes, and in fact to draw. The improvement has been as- 
tonishing in this branch; and, to some of the children, it is 
as easy to draw an outline of any country from memory, as 
to make any letter of the alphabet. Their geography is 
entirely practical; and the first part, all that has yet been 
printed, is confined to topography ; and this is nearly all of 
modern geographies that the memory retains. Beginners 
draw small maps from common school atlases. After they 
have drawn each several times, they draw maps of various 
countries on a large scale. There are but four children in 
the school who do not study geography. 

As soon as a child has learned to shape and join letters 
correctly on the slate, she is required to write on pap^r. 



82 APPENDIX. 

The monitors are under the care of the master; and, after 
they have written a copy, are dispersed to their various 
classes. Writers on paper are classed according to their 
proficiency. The master, besides taking the oversight of 
all, has one or two classes under his particular care. Mon- 
itors are placed over the rest; and, in most cases, two to 
each class, — one to make and mend pens, and the other 
to set copies. The monitors are, during the time of writing, 
behind their scholars, looking over and instructing them. 
As it has been objected that monitors sometimes set imper- 
fect copies, it may be well to consider the objection for a 
moment. Setting aside the fact that engraved slips are 
seldom suitable for beginners, being either of an improper 
size, or lacking simplicity; and passing by the fact that 
many masters, to say nothing of mistresses, who pretend to 
teach writing, cannot equal our monitors, I will venture to 
deny the correctness or truth of the objection; and for the 
following reasons: First, experience shows that children 
seldom regard a loose slip after the first line; and nothing 
disgusts them more than to write a second copy from the 
same slip, as they must do, if only a limited number of en- 
graved slips is provided. Children prefer, in the second 
place, to write after v/ritten copies; and if the master sets 
ail of them, he cannot inspect the classes while writiDg. 
Besides, a monitor with only four or five copies to \'i rite, 
W'ili be more likely to write tliem well, trying, as they al- 
ways do, to e.\cel, than the master will, hurried and busy 
as he must be. and compelled, as he often is, to write with 
any pen he can fmd. The question then is, are not mooi*- 
tors, who are, to say the least, better writers than their 
pupils, and can be constantly watching over them, a fuil 
equivalent for a master's copy, v/ithout any iospectioi;? 
Finally, I believe a child will be more likely and more 
anxious to exert herself, when there is some hope of 
equalling her copy, than when she knows this to be im- 
possible. This is not hypothetical, but a principle of our 



APPENDIX. 83 

nature, exerted on every other occasion. We have said 
nothing of the immense utility of this exercise to the mon- 
itors, but if what has been adduced is not sufficient to re- 
move the objection, we challenge a comparison of our 
writers with those taught by any other mode. 

These remarks will apply to reading also. A very young 
imonitor, with a sense of her dignity, will be able to point 
out to her little class as may errors in hearing them read 
fifty verses, as a master would in hearing only one; for 
this is nearly the proportion of practice between the two 
modes. Besides, the monilors read much for the purpose 
of instructing their classes. The fact is, the whole depends 
upon the master. If he correctly instructs the monitors, 
they will correctly transmit his instructions to their classes. 
An examination of even the lowest class in our school, will 
satisfy any one disposed to cavil; and upon this examina- 
tion we may safely rest the defence of the monitorial sys- 
tem. 

Connected with writing on paper, is the makins; and 
mending of pens. This is done entirely by the children or 
their monitors. Every class that comes under the master's 
care, is instructed in pen making; but they seldom wait for 
this. Being allowed to help themselves, as soon as they 
please, the making of pens, which enslaves masters of 
common schools, and is a mystery to most adult females, is 
a very simple operation in our school. It is never neces- 
sary for me to mend one pen. A child wlio mends her 
own pen, does- not write so well for it, at tirst; but she soon 
recovers, and acquires an independence of others, which 
those only can appreciate who cannot make a good pen. 

I shall omit many exercises subsidiary to those aheady 
described, such as reading, spelling, saying the multiplica- 
tion and other tables cdl together, an exercise which has a 
powerful influence upon their habits of order and attention, 
and is a rapid and pleasing method of reviewing many ex- 
ercises; for, many pupils who are afraid to speak alone, 



84 APPENDIX. 

are emboldened by numbers; and it is no more difficult for 
the master's ear to detect an error in the multitude of 
voices, than for a musician to discover a discord in a choir. 
These exercises also have a powerful effect in banishing 
that monotony and ennui which so often reign in schools 
conducted on the common plan. 

After this tedious enumeration of my labors, you will be 
surprised to hear that not the least important branch re- 
mains to be mentioned, I mean general instruction. It has 
been my incessant care on every occasion, and on every 
subject within the scope of my own knowledge, to inculcate 
useful information. To enable myself to lose no opportu- 
nity of doing this, my intercourse with my pupils has 
been as familiar as that of a parent. No niagisterial dig- 
nity has prevented the approach of the most timid ciiild; 
and a perfect knowledge oT all their little peculiarities has 
been the pleasing consequence. I am aware that such a 
state of things is supposed to be incompatible with the 
rigid discipline expected, in large schools; but the expe- 
rience of two years has satisiied me that it is as yet un- 
necessary to assume the circumstance and terror which 
have been consideied the inseparable attributes of a good 
pedagogue. 

After this particular description of the exercises, lest 
their variety and number should leave upon the mind an 
idea of confusion and disorder, some description of the 
general principles upon which the exercises are conducted, 
may be necessary. In the first place, then, no pupil is 
allowed to be idle; and it is the duty of the niaster so to 
arrange the lessons, that a class shall be continually under 
his care; and that class must not contain one of the moni- 
tors whose tvirn it is to be on duty. To enable him to do 
this, there is a set time for every recitation of every class. 
Monitors of arithmetic, for instance, recite to the master, 
and then go to teach arithmetic classes. T^ hile they are 
doing this, the monitors of grammar recite to the master, 



APPENDIX. 85 

and are ready to teach classes, by the time the arithmetic 
classes have finished their exercise. While the monitors 
ol^ grammar are teaching tlieir classes, the monitors of geog- 
raphy are reciting to the master, and are ready to teach 
their classes, as soon as the classes are dismissed by their 
grammar monitors. In this way, a constant succession of 
fresh monitors is provided; and the frequent change of 
exercises prevents the children from being fatigued. 

There is a different ciassiiication in every branch of 
study; and in classing the pupils in one branch, no regard 
is paid to their rank in another. Hence it not unfrequent- 
ly happens that a monitor of reading teaches her monitor 
of arithmetic, or a monitor of spelling has in her class her 
own monitor in geograpliy. In this way, every child ht.s 
a fair chance to rise, if her genius leads to excellence in 
any thing. In common schools, a good arithmetician or 
reader cannot be first in the class, unless she is superior in 
every other branch studied by her class. 

It may be worth our while here to compare the amount 
of 'practice obtained by each child in our school, with that 
of schools on the common plan. Let it be promised that 
the master is, during the whole time, as busily engaged as 
any master on the other plan can be. Our school con- 
sists, say, of eighty pupils, v^^ho attend five hours in the day, 
not including the afternoon school taught by a female. 
Five hours, supposing the master never to be interrupted 
in his labors, and the scholars allowed no recess, will, on 
the old plan, give each the personal attention of the master 
just three minutes and three quarters. But, if the master 
be interrupted, all the exercises must stop of course. On 
the monitorial plan, supposing the classes to consist of six, 
each child vrill be actually practising ffhj minutes; and, if 
the master is interrupted, the exercises of the school go on, 
as if nothing had happened. But even this estimate falls 
far short of the truth; for, in some exercises, — writing on 

the slate or paper, for instance, — every child is engaged all 

o 
o 



86 APPENDIX. 

the time. To this should be added the extraordinary atten- 
tion required in such small classes, compared with that of 
large ones. If, in a school of only eighty pupils, the ad- 
vantage is so much in our iavor, it will be doubled in a 
school of one hundred and sixty; and so on. 

We come now to the subject of discipline. It would be 
unnecessary to say that no corporeal punishment is inflict- 
ed in this female school, could we believe that it is never 
allowed in others. We need no check upon absence; for 
the absence itself is a severe punishment to the pupil. We 
check tardiness by rewarding punctuality; but, if this is 
not suflicient, we deduct the tardiness from the time al- 
lowed for recess; and as few children love to sit still while 
their fellows are playing, such cases seldom occur. This 
is the only penance we inflict. By a vote of the trustees, 
the sum of twenty-five cents a scholar is appropriated every 
quarter, for rewards. This forms a fund, say twenty dol- 
lars, to be distributed quarterly, amongst the scholars. 
Now, as the usual method of distributing prizes and medals, 
Avhile it gratifies one or two pre-eminent scholars, disap- 
points and disheartens a great many, fully as deserving, 
and aflbrds no stimulus to the majority of the school, who 
never expect to gain tlie prize, we have adopted a more 
equitable and satisfactory method, which relieves the mas- 
ter or trustees from the painful task of selectingf the best 
scholar, and aflbrds even the least eminent as much reward 
as she deserves. A nominal currency, called merits, is in- 
troduced, and a certain number of merits fixed for every 
exercise; so that each child knows how much she can earn, 
and liow many merits her classmates are entitled to re- 
ceive. An alphabetical list of names is written, against 
which as many merits are marked in scores, as she is en- 
titled to. If she can do more than the exercise required, 
she receives extra nierifs. These merits are marked the 
moment the exercise is finished; but, as it would take too 
lonjT to call the roll of the whole school at the end of every 



APPENDIX^ 87 

exercise, each monitor is required to keep a list of the 
children in her class, say five or six; and, at a given signal, 
the marks are in a minute recorded upon these lists, from 
which they are, once a-week, transferred to the general 
list kept by the master. At the end of the quarter, the 
number of merits each child has acquired is counted, and 
then the vvhole number awarded to all the scholars, added 
up. By this gross amount the prize fund of twenty dollars 
is divided, and the cash value of each merit is found. By 
this method every child receives as much as slie is entitled 
to by her industry; and no murmur has ever been heard. 
Those who have been able to understand this description 
will see that there is no limitation to the number or value 
of merits, the latter depending upon the former; and wheth- 
er there be one thousand or ten thousand merits distributed 
in the quarter, each child will receive her proportion of the 
fund. But, as the share of some will be too inconsiderable 
to purchase a valuable prize, the amount is credited, if 
they request it, in a book kept for that purpose, and then 
added to the amount of the next quarter. Some pupils 
have never taken up a cent since they first entered the 
school, preferring to receive their whole sum, when they 
vrithdraw.* 

But there is another class-list, kept for a very different 
purpose, and called the demerit list. Whenever a child of- 
fends against the known regulations of the school, one or 
more demerits, according to the nature of the offence, are 
marked against her name; and these demerits are deducted 
from the amount 6f her merits, at the end of the quarter; 
but should they outnumber her merits, they are charged to 
her, in account, and deducted from the next quarter. 
This is the only punishment, except the loss of recess, ever 
used in the school, and it has been found sufficient to re- 

* It is much to be desired, that a purer motive to exertion, than 
even the ingenious one mentioned above, could be substituted for those 
which have hitiierto been employed in most schools. Ed. 



88 ArFE\I>LV. 

strain the most ccireleps or ungovernable. Your instruetej' 
is of opinion that no other punishment is necessary in any 
school. Corporeal punishment is allowed in some monito- 
rial schools; but the founder of the system discountenanced 
it, as hardening vicious boys, and ruining the temper of 
good ones. He proposed various modes of mortiiicatioi> 
and penance; but it is believed that a few dollars, appro- 
priated and distributed as we propose, will be found more 
simple and efficacious. The only school 1 ever taught, 
previous to this, was composed of children mostly of the 
poorest class in our city, such as cannot now be found in 
any other public school. One year, I pursued the system 
of castigation, with no little rigor; but, becoming convinced 
of its evil tendency, I tried my present system, the second 
year, wilh perfect success. The children v/ere more obe- 
dient, more attentive, and more happy. 

High ScJiool for Girls. 

[We i?ave mentioned that the Monitorial system is com- 
inp- into use in seme of the public schools. Of these 
the most distinguished is the High School for Girls, 
under the care of Mr. Ebenezer Bailey. From the printed 
account of this Seminary we extract the following informa- 
tion.] 

At a meeting of the School Committee, held May 10, 
1825, on motion of the secretary, it was 

Voted, That a committee be raised to consider the ex- 
pediency and practicability of establishing a public school for 
the instruction of g/r/s in the higher departments of science 
and literature, and to report upon the same to this board. 

Voted, That this committee consist of Messrs. Welsh, 
Pierpont, Basset, and Hayward. 

At a meeting of the board, held June 22, the -report of 
this committee was read, and unanimously accepted. 

[Some extracts are subjoined.] 

'' The committee appointed to consider the expediency 



APPE^fDIX. 89 

and practicability of instituting a school for the instruction 
of the female children of this city, in the higher depart- 
ments of science and literature, have had under their con- 
sideration the matter referred to them, and ask leave to 
report to this board; 

That your committee have construed the terms in which 
the subject has been referred to them, as inviting their at- 
tention, in the first place, to the expediency; and in the se- 
cond, to the pyaciicabilitij, of the measure proposed. 

In the first place, in regard to the general expediency of 
placing women, in respect to education, upon ground, if 
not equal, at lest bearing a near and an honorable relation, 
to that of men, in any community, your committee think 
that no doubt can, at this day, be entertained by those who 
consider the weight of female influence in society, in every 
stage of moral and intellectual advancement; and especi- 
ally by those who consider the paramount and abiding in- 
fluence of mothers upon every successive generation of 
men, during the earliest years of their life, and those years 
in which so much, or so little, is done, towards forming 
moral character, and giving the mind a direction and an 
impulse towards usefulness and happiness in after life. As 
to the general expediency, then, of giving women such an 
education as shall make them fit wives for well-educated 
men, and enable them to exert a salutary influence upon the 
rising generation, as there can be no doubts, your commit- 
tee will use no arguments at this board; but will confine 
themselves to the pavticidar expediency of provision for a 
higher education of our daughters, at the public expense. 

And your committee think favorably of making an efibrt 
to this end, for the following reasons which arc particular, 
as well as for the many reasons which are more general in 
their nature. 

In the first place, it would render more efficient, and, 
consequently, more profitable to the city, the provision 



90 



APPENDIX. 



which has already been made for the pubUc education of 
its daughters. 

As our pubhc Grammar schools are now constituted, 
some of the finest scholars in the girls' department are seen 
in the first class, at the age of eleven or twelve years, by 
the side of girls of fourteen or fifteen years old, who have 
been rather tolerated in the first class, either from courtesy 
to their age, or from pity to their unsuccessful eflxjrts, than 
entitled to a place there, on the score of their good scho- 
larship. As the class must, on the present system of organ- 
isation, move on together, the former are continually held 
in check, that the latter may keep in their company; and, 
as the masters have neither time nor authority to go with 
them into higher studies, it is easy to see, what is of every 
day's occurrence, that the more sprightly girls find it diffi- 
cult to fill up their hours profitably to themselves; and are 
in constant danger of falling into habits of inattention, and 
mental dissipation; a danger which now presses upon them 
for two or three of the last years that they are allowed their 
seats in the public school. Now, by the school proposed, 
this evil, which is a very serious one, v/ould be obviated. 
The same field would be opened in this school, for the girls 
as has, for a few years, been so successfully opened in the 
English High School, for the boys in the Grammar schools. 
An object would be presented of honorable ambition, and 
of lively competition, to the misses who are now con- 
demned to two, and sometimes three years, very inade- 
quately and unprofitably employed; and those indolent 
habits of mind might be avoided, which it is so much more 
easy to prevent than to correct. 

Secondly, the school contemplated seems to your com- 
mittee to be particularly expedient for this city, in respect 
to the impulse that would be given by it to the whole ma- 
chinery of our public instruction, through the medium of 
"the Primary schools. 

These schools are daily gaining the confidence of the 



APPENDIX. 9 1 

community, and, consequently, are daily furnishing a great- 
er and greater proportion of the chiWren to our Grammar 
schools. Of course, it is of continually increasing impor- 
tance that these ^rs^ schools should be taught by those who 
are themselves well educated. They are, and probably 
will be, taught exclusively by women; and it is doing no 
injustice to the city, or to the gentlemen who so faithfully 
superintend these schools, to say, that they are not always 
able to find women qualified as they ought to be, to take 
charge of these very interesting public institutions. A 
school like that now in contemplation, would certainly and 
permanently furnish teachers for the Primary schools, com- 
petent in every respect to render the city efficient service; 
and especially in this respect, that they will have gained, 
by their own experience, a thorough knowledge of our 
whole system of pubHc instruction, and the relations of its 
several parts to each other. Thus, the city will insure to 
itself a greater excellence and uniformity in the Primary 
schools, than is possible at present, and be always able to 
recur to its own resources, to meet its own wants; — ex- 
hibiting thus, in morals — what has been so long a deside- 
ratum in mechanics — a piece of machinery that, by its own 
operation, produces the power by which itself is driven. 

Thirdly, your comittee think a school such as is pro- 
posed, particularly expedient to this city, in regard to the 
experiment that might be made in it, of the practicability 
and usefulness of inonitonal or mutual instruction; or at 
least, of so much of that system as on experiment would be 
found to accord with the genius and habits of our commu- 
nity. That something of this system might be introduced 
into all our public schools, to the benefit of the schools and 
to the pecuniary advantage of the city, your committee can 
hardly doubt. One experiment has been made, and made 
successfully. But there were considerations which pre- 
vented the carrying of that system up from the school in 
which it was tried, into the higher public schools. The 



92 APPENDIX. 

same system, with some qualifications, has been under sue-* 
cessful experiment in' a subscription school, composed of 
the daughters of our most respectable families; and your 
committee are persuaded that, under the control of a master 
of judgement and genius, so much of that system might be 
profitably introduced into a female High School, as would 
prove to the public in this city, that the same might be 
carried into our Grammar and Reading schools, at least, 
to great advantage. At any rate, a satisfactory experiment 
might be made. Should it fail, as it hardly can, the city 
will lose nothing but the time and comparatively trifling ex- 
pense of making it; and should it succeed, the city will 
secure to itself the better instruction of one third more 
children than are now instructed, and at probably one third 
less expense. 

[This school was opened in February last, with 135 
scholars; and has been in highly successful operation 
since that time. Visiters are freely admitted to the school, 
and have opportunity of observing the exercises of the 
classes. The public opinion formed under these circum- 
stances, is in the highest degree favorr.ble. The assertion 
may be safely made that in no case has any institution 
risen so rapidly in public estimation. The school presents 
an air of intelligence, order, neatness, facility, and des- 
patch, which speaks volumes in favor of the new method. 

After repeated visits to the school, we are enabled to 
furnish a brief account of its present condition and ar- 
rangements, which, imperfect as it is, cannot fail to prove 
deeply interesting to all who are gratified by the advance- 
ment of public education. 

Candidates for admission into this school, must be, at 
least, twelve years of age; and they are admitted on an 
examination in those branches of education which are 
pursued in the public grammar and writing schools of th« 
city; namely, Reading, Spelling, Geography, Writing, 



APPENDIX. 93 

fc]iiglish Grammar, and Arithmetic. The course of studies, 
which is calculated to occupy three years, is as follows: — 
Reading, Spelling, English Grammar, Composition, Rhet- 
oric, Modern and Ancient Geography, use of the Globes, 
Projection of Maps, intellectual and written Arithmetic, El- 
ements of Geometry, Algebra, Demonstrative Geometry, 
Principles of Perspective, Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, 
Chemistry, Botany, Book-keeping by single entry. History of 
the United States, General History, History of England^ 
History of Greece, History of Rome, Natural Theology, 
Moral Philosophy, Evidences of Christianity, Logic, Latin, 
and rVench. Some of these studies are required of all the 
scholars, and others are alloived, as evidences of distin- 
guished proficiency, and as motives to higher efforts. No 
pecuniary rewards are given in the school. All the means 
Used for promoting punctuality and exciting emulation, 
are strictly of a moral or intellectual character If, for 
example, all the members of a section pertbrm any given 
exercise promptly and with unerring correctness, they 
have a right to demand as long a lesson as they please, 
for the next exercise of the same kind. And such are the 
disposition and arrangements of the school, that this alone 
might prove reward enough to excite as great a degree 
of diiiojence as is desirable. 

Other means, however, are used not only for the purpose 
of exciting emulation, but also of promoting punctuality in 
attendance, and lady-like deportment. An accurate ac- 
count of every scholar's performances, conduct, absence, 
tardiness, &.c. is kept on record; and, at the end of each 
quarter, she is promoted or degraded, as this shall appear 
in her favor or against her. Besides the regular exercises 
of the school, the principle of voluntary labor is introduced 
a? far as practicable, and with great success. Indeed, a 
scholar always performs a voluntary exercise with more 
pleasure and profit, than a task prescribed by the teacher. 

As the High School for Girls has been in operation but 



94 APPENDIX. 

about six months, it consists, at present, of one class only. 
A new class is to be admitted every Autumn. At the be- 
ginning of the third year the school will be full. The tirst 
or highest class will then leave annually, to make room for 
their successors. The school being yet in its infancy, no 
arrangements have been made for the accommodation 
of the classes hereafter to be admitted. It is hoped a 
three-story building, in some central situation, may event- 
ually be erected, with each story fitted for the reception 
of a class. An important feature in the method of teaching 
now pursued, will render it necessary that the several 
classes should be in separate rooms. We allude to oral 
instruction. The school is called to uniform order, at prop- 
er and convenient times, when the teacher explains to 
them in a famiHar manner, such principles connected with 
their studies, as seem to require illustration. As the 
scholars advance farther into higher and untried paths of 
education, these remarks will become more necessary and 
more frequent. While the observations addressed to the 
highest cia>;s, would be altogether premature to the lowest, 
those addressed to the lowest would be ' a tale thrice told' 
to the more advanced scholars. Much time and labor 
would be thus thrown away; to say nothing of the thousand 
inconveniences incident to managing so large a number of 
pupils in a single room, and nothing of the bad habits of 
mind which scholars would be liable to acquire, by pretend- 
ing to listen to their teacher, while speaking on subjects they 
were not prepared to comprehend, and in a language they 
could not u iderstand. This is a point on which we feel 
impelled to enlarge. The measure of progress in education 
is not, How far has a scholar advanced in the departments 
of a given branch, or the pages of a particular book, but, 
Does the learner really understand what is studied, — has 
the teacher explained it, — has he rendered it interesting, — 
has he caused it to make so lasting an impression that it 
beconjes incorporated with the e.^ercise of the pupil's mind, 



APPENDIX. 95 

not merely on the subject supposed, but on all others with 
which that is connected, — are habits of attention, oi reflec- 
tion, of reasoning, cultivated? a he attainnient of all this is 
abose the reach of mere book study and mechanical reci- 
tation: it must come directly from the mind of the instructer: 
it must be caught from his lips. — Any thing that would in- 
terfere with thorough oral instruction we should earnestly 
deprecate. 

The school is divided into sections of twelve scholars 
each, who arc as nearly equal in their attainments and 
talents and application, as circumstances will admit. These 
sections are arranged anew every quarter, when those who 
have excelled are advanced to a higher standing, and those 
who have not kept pace with their class are degraded to a 
lower rank. The places of individuals depend upon the 
Records, already named; and the business is regulated by 
such fixed principles, that the school could be classed by 
the pupils themselves, ^^ — if it were expedient, — with a suffi- 
cient degree of accuracy. 

The arrangements for the preservation of order are some- 
v.'liat peculiar. The Police of the school consists of a head 
monitor, a monitor of attendance, a monitor of dictation, 
and as many sub-monitors as there are sections, each of 
whom has an assistant. The authority of the three first 
extends over the vrhole school; and they are selected to 
till their respective places, as marks of distinguished merit, 
in appointing sub-monitors, no regard is paid to scholar- 
ship, but only to ingenuous, amiable, and lady-like deport- 
ment. All these monitors hold their places for a quarter. 
Through the agency of the monitors, the government is 
vested in a set of books; and so efficient is this system, 
that the presence of the instructer is scarcely necessary 
for the preserv^ation of order. No instance of punishment 
has yet occurred; and but very {e.w individuals have ever 
been spoken to by the principal of the school, for any im- 
proper conduct. The monitors, as such, have nothing to 



96 APPENDIX. 

do with the instruction of the school. Each sub-monitor 
has Hhe superiritendence of the section next below her.' 

The teachers are selected solely with reference to their 
attainments in the several studies, in which they are to 
give instruction; and retain their respective classes, as 
long as it may be found expedient and proper. No teach- 
er hears the same section in two difierent studies; and no 
one is required to hear a class, while her own class is re- 
citing. Tne scholars are very watchful to detect the 
errors of their teachers and of each other: this secures 
their undivided attention to the exercise before them, 
makes the teacher careful in the discharge of her duty, 
and brings to her assistance all the knowledge of her class. 

To prevent any disorder or delay, while the classes are 
at their recitations, each section has a messenger, through 
whom all communications, to and from the instructer, are 
made. The messengers are ihe highest scholars in their 
respective sections. To illustrate the nature of their du- 
ties, suppose a scholar does not give a prompt and satis- 
factory answer to a question proposed; her teacher says 
^ checkP Should she not acquiesce in this decision, her 
answer is ' appcalP The messenger then brings the case 
before the instructer for his consideration, stating all the 
circumstances, except the name of the individual. This is 
done in writing, when it can be without too much delay. 

The following miscellaneous items of information will be 
found not unworthy of attention. 

Unfortunately the arrangements of the rooms are such 
tliat but half of the schciars can conveniently recite at a 
time. — Particular attention is paid however to the comfort 
of the scholars: they change their position from standing to 
sitting, every 15 or 20 minutes. 

The attendance on the school is excellent — the scholars 
being seldom or never absent, but in cases of sickness, 
even in bad v.eather. On visitinf^ the school on one of 



APPENDIX. 



97 



the late very rainy days, hardly any places were found va- 
cant. This circumstance says more than could be written 
in many pages, on the pleasure which the young derive 
from the new method of instruction. 

When a new branch of study is introduced, the teacher 
instructs personally, until some of the scholars are qualified 
to become teachers in it. — The inductive method is used, 
whenever it can be successfully employed. — By adoptmg 
oral instruction no chanjre of books for the monitorial meth- 
od has been found necessary. 

Every scholar revieivsy in presence of her instructer, 
every thing she studies. The books of the school are divided 
into stages; and before a class passes to a new stage, their 
teacher requests the instructer himself to ascertain if they 
are qualified, — which is done by such a review. — Scholars 
are encouraged in using their own language, instead ot that 
of their books.]* 

Boston Monitorial School for Boys. 
[The teacher's intention is to furnish a schoo] for boySj 
corresponding to that of 3'Ir. Fowle's for girls. It is a pri- 
vate undertaking; but, for the time it has existed, it has been 
patronised to a very encouraging extent. Much satisfac- 
tion is expressed by parents and others who have visited 
the school. But the following account, with which Mr. 
Price the instructer has favored us, will best speak for 
this promising seminary.] 

The pupils are divided, for most of the branches, into 
five classes. The branches at present pursued in the school 
are, Reading, Writing, Spelling, Arithmetic, Geography, 

* Several poin<s in the method of instruction adopted in this sciiool, 
are equally peculiar and interesting. We regret our want of room for 
a fuller account than is now presented : and would express a hope that 
the instructer himself will do more adequate justice to the subject, by 
furnishing the public with n more complete statement of his system, 
embrai ing its application in detail. Such a publication would, we think, 
be serviceable to the progress of improvement in education. Ed. 

9 



98 APPENDIX. 

and English Grammar. The scholars were found so de- 
ficient in the very elements of knowledge, as to render it 
necessary to begin with them anew. It is the intention 
of the instructor, however, to advance them to the studies 
of our best seminaries. 

The exercises are commenced by reading a short portion 
of scripture, and devotions, in which each scholar unites 
with the instructor. 

While the larger scholars are reading in the First Class 
Book, Popular Lessons, &c., the younger are reciting at a 
revolving alphabet wheel, so constructed that only one let- 
ter is presented to the view at once. The scholars are 
encouraged to be critical in their corrections of each other, 
and to refer every doubtful case to the instructor. To pre- 
vent confusion, a slate is fastened to the front of the desk, 
on which the scholar writes a short account of the dispute, 
containing all the particulars except the names of those 
concerned in it. This gives frequent opportunity to cor- 
rect their spelling and grammar, and it confers ease in 
committing their thoughts to writing. In some questions on 
pronunciation, the criticism has been extremely minute and 
accurate. The scholars sometimes read all together, after 
the instructer; regarding only distinctness and clearness oi" 
articulation. 

In spelling we have three methods. One to sound the 
letters without pronouncing the word; another to pronounce 
and spell the word after the instructer; the other, to their 
monitors at their stations. 

For writing, every boy is provided with a slate on which 
he writes words from his spelling lesson for the day, until 
he can form a tolerable letter, sit, and hold his pencil with 
propriety; he is then advanced to a writing book. But I 
consider the common method of placing upon paper the 
first rude attempts of a scholar, as worse than useless. It 
operates as a discouragement to future efforts. While 
writing upon a slate, the boy feels perfect confidence; for if 



APPENDIX. 



99 



he should fail in the first trial, he can erase his derect, and 
begin again. But no such alternative presents itself on pa- 
per: if he attempts to hide his error he makes it worse. 

In Arithmetic, two methods are employed. One with the 
use of the slate, the other mental. In the former case, the 
class put down upon the slate the sum which the monitor 
dictates, and immediately show slates. The pupil who 
showed first, if his performance is correct, is advanced to 
the head of his class. The rapidity with which some boys 
will make figures, and perform operations in arithmetic, is 
astonishing. In mental arithmetic we use Fowle's and Col- 
burn's systems. The operations are performed with mar- 
bles. So interested are the scholars in this exercise, which 
1 consider among our most useful, that they are very re- 
luctantly called away from it. 

In Geography, the scholars themselves provide some 
parts of their apparatus. Once, after a request from the 
instructer on this point, ac amusing scene was presented. 
One brought, to represent the earth, an apple with a pen- 
cil passed through it for the axis. Another, (not quite so 
refined,) a potato. A third, a wooden ball, which soon 
supplanted all the rest. The instructer places himself in 
the situation of a pupil; and instead of the scholars being- 
only listeners, they are the lecturers, subject only to his 
occasional interruption. 

We have an exercise in Geometry which is very inter- 
esting. To induce the pupils to think before they speak, 
the questions are asked in such a manner as would natu- 
rally lead them to an erroneous answer. But so careful 
have they become, that not only in this but in other branch- 
es, they will cautiously revolve the question in their minds 
before they answer, so as to discover if there is any error 
designed or unintentional in the question. 'The youngest 
children will acquire a knowledge of regular bodies with 
perfect ease. 

We have less vacation than most schools. The recess 



iOO APPENDIX. 

on Thursday afternoon has been given up; and innocent antl 
heriithful excursions into the neighboring towns, have been 
substituted, ft is in these ' rural icalh'' that the natural scien- 
ces may be practically taught, and facts in our country's 
history illustrated on the spot where they occurred. But, 
chiefly, they are useful, as they present the best season for 
moral lessons. Every instructer must have experienced 
the discouragement of seeing his pupil fall into the very 
offence, against which he had most frequently lectured. 
The fact is, his instruction was ill-timed. When the chil- 
dren, unrestrained, give way to their several dispositions, 
he has it in his power to check, at the time, the act which 
is about to be committed. For instance: many boys who 
would scorn to pilfer, would think it no harm to take an 
apple from a neighbor's tree. In this case, how powerful 
would an admonition come, at the moment of transgression. 
These excursions, and indeed having any regular exercises 
on Thursday afternoon, are peculiarly beneficial. The 
parents are relieved from much anxiety. The limbs are 
safe, the raiment not in danger, and the morals strictly 
guarded.* We have visited Bunker Hill, where the battle, 
and some of the leading facts connected with our revolu- 
tion, were related to the pupils; and the most eager atten- 
tion to the narrative manifested the vast superiority of oral 
instruction in history, given on the spot rendered sacred by 
the deeds of patriotic valor. 

Anecdotes are frequently related to the boys. This 
method is adopted as preferable to reading, and as alone 
possessing that livijig interest, whicli, to the young, gives 
narrative its grand charm. 

Besides the excursions before described, we have regu- 
lar gymnastic exercise every day. Sufficient provision has 

* Our pracCice i< fo come too:ether at the usual hour in the afternoon, 
to hear an exercise in declamation, and then proceed on our excursion. 
Any scliolar is excused at the request of the parent to attend a school 
for dancing, or a schocl for any other branch of education. 



APPENDIX. 101 

been made for this exercise, for the present; but it will be 
improved and extended as soon as circumstances shall ren- 
der it necessary. 

The intervals between the school exercises, are filled 
up by a recitation of the tables in a manner which is pe- 
culiar to this school, and prepares the scholars for the de- 
partment of fractions, as well as for intellectual arithmetic 
generally. 

[Mr. Price mentions with much approbation the High 
School of Providence, under the charge of Mr. G. A. Dewitt, 
which is in a very flourishing condition. From the method 
of Mr. Dewitt many valuable ideas have been derived by 
Mr. Price. 

An account of the Providence High School was expect- 
ed for this manual, but has not been received — owingr, it 
is believed, to the absence of the instructer.] 

Lancasterian School^ JVew-Haven. 

[In New-Haven, Connecticut, a flourishing school has 
been taught for several years, by Mr John Lovell, a pupil 
of Joseph Lancaster, 

Governor Wolcott, in his message to the Legislature of 
Connecticut, May, 1823, has the following paragraphs in 
which allusion is made to this school.] 

Flappily the system of Monitorial or Lancasterian 
schools comes to our aid at a time, when, I trust, we are 
prepared to receive it. It has been sufficiently adopted 
in this country, to enable every well informed person to 
judge of its tendencies and principles. It is well known, 
that it has efiected a highly beneficial change in the habits, 
character, and intelligence, of the youth of New Haven. 
Those who have passed through a regular course, are well 
educated young men, prepared to enter on the duties of 
active life. This system is diffusing over the city of New 
York, where it affords indisputable evidence of its benefi- 
9* 



102 APPENDIX. 

cial eflects, training youth to a love of order and virtue, 
inspiring their minds with self-regard, religious and moral 
sentiments, industry, justice, and a reverence for the laws; 
repressing juvenile errors, and preparing the mass of pop- 
ulation, in a scene where lately great dangers existed, to 
support those pure manners and correct principles, upon 
which the conservation of republican governments must, 
in a few years, entirely depend. 

If funds can be obtained to defray the expenses of the 
necessary preparations, I have no doubt, that schools, on 
the Lancasterian model, ought as soon as possible to be 
established in several parts of this state. The buildings 
should be constructed, by our architects, of permanent 
materials ; such plans, as experience has recommended, 
can be readily obtained from New-York; — instructors are 
constantly forming ; and wherever, from two hundred to 
one thousand children can be convened within a suitable 
distance, this mode of instruction, in every branch of read- 
ing, speaking, penmanship, arithmetic, and book-keeping, 
will be found much more efficient, direct, and economical, 
than the practices now generally pursued in our primary 
schools. These branches of knowledge, in themselves, 
constitute a good education, and it is their great recom- 
mendation, that the Lancasterian modes can be readily con- 
formed to our principles, habits, and present usages. 

[The following is the report of the visiting committee of 
the present year.] 

The visitinor committee of the New-Haven School Soci- 
^iy, are happy to express the renewed gratification with 
which they have attended the quarterly examination of the 
Lancasterian School, 

The number of scholars belonging to the school during 
the last quarter, is 250, showing an increase of at least 100 
within the last six months. While this increase testifies to 
the progress of the institution in the good opinion of the 
public, it gives us pleasure to express our conviction that, 



APPENDIX. 103 

at no former examination which we have witnessed, have 
the pupils given so decided evidence of improvement in 
the various branches of study or of complete subordination 
and regularity. Our confidence in the excellence of the 
plan on which the school is established was never firmer 
than at this moment. 

We have been particularly pleased with the examinations 
in the higher departments of common school education. It 
has been commonly objected to the monitorial system of 
instruction, that, while it does well for reading and spell- 
ing, it is inapplicable to higher studies. I'his opinion no 
man can retain after hearino; the examination of the classes 
of this school in English Grammar, in Geography, and 
in Arithmetic. The pupils, generally, show a complete 
familiarity with the subjects on which they are examined — 
a familiarity which results partly from the habits of close 
attention which this system requires and creates, and partly 
from the constant reviewing of the classes, which this sys- 
tem alone can secure. 

The Principal of the School, to whose industry and 
enterprise no less than to the excellence of the method, 
the public are indebted for the prosperity of the institution, 
has lately been attempting to combine the inductive sys- 
tem with the monitorial. The success of the experiment 
we were gratified to witness in the readiness with which 
a considerable class of the youngest boys in school an- 
swered to the questions of their monitor in the rudiments 
of Arithmetic. 

We trust that if the method with which Mr Lovell has 
been making this experiment can be perfected and gene- 
rally adopted, it will be no longer supposed that there is 
any peculiar mystery about numbers, or that children may 
not learn arithmetic as easily as they learn to spell. 

These general remarks of commendation cannot, of 
course, be applicable to every individual scholar; but we 
believe the system of instruction adopted in this school 



104 APPENDIX. 

better designed than any other to promote the great endj- 
of education — the acquisition of knowledge, and what is 
still more important to the youthful mind, the formation, in 
the pupils, of habits of regularity, of method, and of con- 
stant and fixed attention. We, therefore, most cheerfully 
recommend this school to the continued patronage of the 
public. Such is our confidence in the superior benefit 
resulting from the monitorial mode of teaching, that we 
cannot conclude without expressing a hope that, in the 
course of a few years at most, a similar institution will be 
established in this city for the instruction of small girls. 

Benjamin M. Hill, Leonard l>accn, Charles Hooker, 
Ebenezer Seeley, — Visiting Committee. * 

Lancaster Scliool^ Albany. 

[In Albany, New York, there has been, for several years, 
an extensive and justly celebrated school on Lancaster's 
plan. We present to our readers the last annual report.] 

At an annual meeting of the members of the Albany 
Lancaster School Society, held at the capitol in the city of 
Albany on the Cth day of Feb. 1826 — Samuel M. Hopkins 
was chosen chairman, and Benjamin F. Butler, secretary. 

The trustees made the following report to the society, 
which was read and ordered to be printed. 

The trustees of the Albany Lancaster School Society, in 
conformity to the requirements of their act of incorporation, 
make their annual report as follows : 

From the report of the teacher, it appears that the school 
has been well attended for the past year, and that the pro- 
gress of the scholars has never been greater, owing in 
part to their less fluctuating attendance. The mmiber of 
scholars that have received instruction during the year 
until the 6th of December last, is 743, and the number now 
on the class lists is 401, the average number daily attend- 
ing is from 300 to 350 ; 58 cipher in books, and enter a 
portion of their calculations. Some of them have been 



APPENDIX. 105 

ilirough Daboll's Arithmetic ; 92 cipher on the Lancaste- 
rian cards, and 117 write on ruled books ; 15 boys and 10 
girls are studying English grammar, and the rules of read- 
ing, and all who are disposed for it, study geography. 

The visiting committee who have from time to time vis- 
ited the school, inspected its discipline, caused the schol- 
ars to go through examinations, and perform their several 
exercises, believe, that in propriety of reading, in penman- 
ship, and in the neatness of their writing and ciphering 
books, in reciting compositions committed to memory, and 
in the rapid progress made in these acquirements, few 
common schools, perhaps none, can produce evidence of 
equal proficiency. Particular attention is paid to cleanli- 
ness and decency of appearance among the scholars; so 
that those who belong to the class, properly denominated 
charity scholars, shall not form a contrast in appearance 
to the pay scholars ; that is the children of those who are 
not dependent, and who duly appreciating the superior ad- 
vantages of this school, desire to give their children the 
benefit of it, and pay a moderate sum for their tuition. 

Independently of the illustration of facts by experience, 
the superiority of the Lancasterian over the common 
school system of education, may be conclusively inferred 
from a comparison of the discipline by which they are re- 
spectively conducted. In a common school of a moderate 
number of scholars, while the teacher attends to the recit- 
ation of one class, all the rest are left without superintend^ 
ence, and may, according to the natural disposition of 
children, spend their time in play and idleness; but this is 
impossible in a Lancasterian school — whether it consists 
of one hundred or one thousand scholars, its strict dis- 
cipline, the total banishment of play and idleness, and 
consequently its unintermitted course of instruction, are 
uniformly and perfectly maintained. 

The Lancasterian system is an imitation of the military. 
Its scholars are divided into classes corresponding to the 



10(? APPENDIX. 

platoons of a regiment. At the head of each class i» 
placed a monitor or subaltern, selected from the scholars, 
answering to a non-commissioned officer at the head of a 
platoon, whose business it is to drill it into a perfect know- 
ledge of the exercises of a soldier, and who will not permit 
the least inattention to his instructions- — so each monitor 
in the school keeps his class in unceasing exercise, and 
thus all inattention and idleness are completely prevented. 
This discipline, it may be observed, conduces also power- 
fully to alacrity in children to pursue their studies, to an 
ambition for excelling, and to a cheerfulness in acting 
their respective parts. Henee their superior, rapid attain- 
ments. This undeniable fact, their superior, rapid attain- 
ments, must strike every impartial examiner with the most 
powerful conviction of its truth, and can leave no room for 
hesitating to decide on the comparative merits of the two 
systems of education. 

Although this school was primarily and chiefly intended 
for the education of the children of families too straighten- 
ed in their circumstances to pay for it, and who will ahvays 
be admitted into it gratis, yet it is not to be considered as 
a mere charity school. It is open to all who can justly 
appreciate its advantages, and who will pay the moderate 
prices that will be apportioned to their respective abilities, 
or their expressed willingness to pay. 

On these grounds, the trustees of the AJbany Lancaster 
School Society, invite all who wish to give their children 
a common school education to participate in the advan- 
tages olTered by this. From those who confess their ina- 
bility to pay any thing, nothing will be demanded ; from 
those who are more a!)le something will be expected, and 
that will be but a trifling amount compared with the value 
of the purchase. In justice to the teacher, it is to be 
observed, that he continues in the discharge of his duties 
to manifest those talents and that fidelitv and regard for 
the welfare of the institution which have distinguished 
hmi, since he first took charge of the school. 



APPENDIX. 107 

The Treasurer's accounts for the last year show a debit 
of 1^1537 93, and a credit of $1210 84, leaving a balance 
in his hand, in favor of the society of ^327 11. Among 
the debited items are !Jp54 46, the balance of the preceding 
year, and Jji41 44 for tuition money received during the 
past year. Simeon De Witt, Pres't. — Lewis C. Breck. 
Sec'ry. Albany, Feb. G, 1826. 

In various parts of the country there are schools on the 
monitorial plan from which the compiler of this volume has 
received no direct intelligence but are highly spoken of 
by persons who have had an opportunity of examining them. 

The specimens, however, which have been given, will, 
it is thought, be sufficient to demonstrate that the system 
of monitorial instruction has passed the stage of argument, 
and is already in successful operation; that it is peculiarly 
adapted to the spirit of American institutions, and more 
conducive to the diffusion of intelligence, than any which 
the progress of improvement has yet brought to light. 

Part of the nmnnal now presented to the public is designed 
for common schools; but, in compiling the appendix it seem- 
ed desirable to collect such matter as might serve to show 
that the benefits of monitorial instruction are not restricted 
to those schools, and will not terminate with the period of 
life devoted to them, but will form, if necessary, an excel- 
lent course of preparation for the discipline of higher sem- 
inaries, to which the new method is equally well adapted, 
and in which it is now extensively introduced. 

MUTUAL INSTRUCTION IX COLLEGES. 

The monitorial system has been so successful in other 
institutions as to authorise the suggestion of iin being 
adopted in the higher seminaries of learning; and an at- 
tempt v.ili now be made to state its application to college 
education, as partly introduced in the university of Glas- 
gow, and as practicable, with peculiar prospects of success, 
in similar institutions in this country. 



108 APPENDIX. 

The idea that mutual instruction can be successfully in- 
troduced in colleges, may be startling to some readers, who 
have been accustomed to regard that method as only a 
very good ' shift' for the poorer classes, and for primary 
education. But it can occasion no surprise to persons 
who have had opportunity of observing the operation and 
the results of that system, — to those who have seen that it 
has a more direct and immediate influence on the mental 
habits than any other method, that it rouses the mind to 
more activity, exercises it more on practical subjects, 
makes more demands for a ready recollection of what is 
learned, prepares pupils for efficient cooperation with 
their teacher, in the benevolent work of communicating 
knowledge, and converts the whole course of education 
into a scene of pure and active enjoyment. That all these 
highly desirable results are really attendant on mutual in- 
struction, is put beyond the reach of discussion. This 
point will need no urging to those who have access to any 
monitorial school, or to those who have read, with a candid 
attention, the recent publications on this subject. 

Every intelligent person in this country has, or may have, 
opportunity of demonstration, or of credible testimony, on 
this point ; and to enter into discussion about it, would be idle. 
We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to a brief considera- 
tion of the advantages likely to result from a more extensive 
introduction of monitorial teachiiig in colleges. We say a 
more extensive introduction, for the system is already in use. 
Every college which employs tutors in instructing its class- 
es, adopts the practice of monitorial tuition; for tutors are 
no other than monitors — the intermediate link between the 
professor and the student. In adopting fully the details of 
the monitorial plan, therefore, there would be no upturn- 
ing of previous arrangements, but simply an enlargement 
of them. The ofiice of tutor would, in this case, corres- 
pond to that of general or superintending monitor, in sem-- 
jnaries on the new ))lan. 



APPENDIX. 109 

Some of the more obvious advantages of the proposed 
arrangement would be, 

1. As regards the students — more shnpleyintelligihle and 
practical, instruction. Knowledge conveyed through the 
medium of a book alone, is comparatively obscure, dry, 
and uninteresting. The case of an individual learner with 
all its pecuhar dithculties, requiring explanation and assist- 
ance, cannot come within the range of such instruction. 
The student has a volume put into his hands which it is 
presumed he understands perfectly, or in which he needs 
but little direction, beyond what its own pagers furnish; and 
the distance existing between students and their tutor, as 
well as an aversion to appear in the attitude of askmg or 
of needing information, commonly prevents recourse to 
the aid of the tutor. The result therefore is, usually, a 
mechanical recitation from the book on the part of the stu- 
dent, and a mechanical act of listening on that of the tu- 
tor; a mutual shyness and reserve presenting a complete 
barrier to the interchange of thought between the teacher 
and the taught. This dull and lifeless and unprotitable 
routine, v/ill be at once changed for action, and animated 
and instructive conversation; if tuition is made to com.e from 
an equal, or, at least, from one who has no distinc- 
tion but that of superior intelligence in the subject which 
is taught. And the ^ree discussion authorised by this ar- 
rangement, is one of the greatest benefits both to the class 
and to their acting instructor, which the new system af- 
fords.* Instruction received and imparted in this way, can 
never become — as is too much the case on the common 
plan — a mere succession of isolated ideas: it becomes in- 
corporated with the mind of the student, and has an in- 
fluence on all his mental habits. 

2. Mutual instruction would produce more attentive and 

* See the observations of professor Pillans already quoted in this Ap- 
pendix. 

10 



110 APPENDIX. 

diligent applicaiion on the part of the students. A mere 
thirst for knowledge, an ambition to excel, or even a deep 
impression of the value of education, will not prove so keen 
an incitement to diligence, as the knowledge of the fact 
that the student himself is to be called to communicate to 
others the instruction which he is receivino;, and to com- 
municate it to an audience who are at liberty to question 
every step of his progress, and draw out all the resour- 
ces of his mind, and all the fruits of his labor, under no 
other ultimate control than an appeal to the decision of 
the principal instructor. But it is not the monitor only 
whose mind is thus improved: the whole class or division 
is naturally inspired with a resolution not to be behind their 
monitor, but on the contrary to come prepared to meet him 
if possible, on equal ground, and perhaps to surpass him, 
or even to reverse his decision, by an ingenious appeal to 
the presiding instructor. There is no danger that in such 
circumstances students who are susceptible of any gene- 
rous and honorable impulse will flag in their efforts. 
Nor will any confusion or impropriety result from this fa- 
miliar method of managing recitations, if there is only a 
reasonable attention en the part of the superintending 
teacher. His presence, too, will be invested with more 
authority, and will command a deeper influence; as it is in 
fact elevated in the scale of consideration, from being re- 
moved one step higher, by the intermediate agency of the 
monitor. 

3. The use of the monitorial metliod would enable stu- 
dents to accompUah morv, within the space assigned to col- 
lege education. One of the chief advantages of the new 
system is the multi]>iyi]!g of instructers. A large class is 
subdivided into many small sections, each provided with a 
monitor. This arrangement classifies the students better 
as to their age and CLq acity. No individual is pushed on 
faster tlian is advantageous to him; and none is compel- 
led f n wait for others who are naturally more tardy, or who 



APPENDIX. i t 1 

are less thoroughly prepared to advance. There is tiius a 
sufficient scope to ambition, without any danger of a hasty 
and superficial application. Every student receives more 
of personal attention and assistance, than on the common 
plan. There is no limit to industry and to acquisition, but 
natural capacity, and a prudent attention to health; and on 
the other hand nothing is left neglected by an attempt to 
hurry on, so as to keep up witli a class, whether an indi- 
vidual is qualified or not. More, therefore, is actually ac- 
complished in both cases, 

4. Mutual instruction would form, to better advantage, 
the mental habils oil students. In the prevailing methods of 
instruction, there is too much of mere sedentary seclusion 
imposed on the student, too much of abstract contempla- 
tion, of a mere passive reception of ideas, of a purely ne- 
gative discipline. Action and impulse are v/anted in the 
formation of intellectual character: positive qualities are 
the niain springs of life. There are but few occasions in 
actual business in which the habits of retirement and men- 
tal absorption, are of much value. 

If education is nothing else than a course of instruc- 
tion and discipline preparatory to the business of life, it 
should not stop short at intellectual acquirements, it should 
embrace a course of active tiai'iing adapted as exactly as 
possible to the exigencies of future avocations.* But, as 
the case now stands in most colleges, the grand object 
seems to be merely to furnish the stiident's mind with the 
materials which he is afterwards to use. Intuitive percep- 
tion, and the pressure of circumsta.eces, it seems to be ta- 
ken for granted, will leach him how to apply what he has 
acquired. The question may be safely put to most of the 
active and the distingni'^hrd individuals wlio are now on 
the stage of life, whether the habits which are most valua- 

*■ See, for a fuU and able s'atement ol' this point, professor Jardine's 
Outlines of Philosopliical Education. 



112 APPENDIX. 

ble to them, are not those for which a collegiate course had 
made little or no provision, and for which these individu- 
als were indebted to vigorous personal discipline, after 
leaving the studies of college. 

A great part of such practical training might be easily 
accomplished in the college course, and ought, in fact, to 
form a large proportion of college exercises. The stu- 
dent would then be able to meet the demands of circumstan- 
ces in professional pursuits; with the advantage of a good 
degree of preparation, and might advance with greatly in- 
creased rapidity and success, in the business of personal 
and professional improvement, 'i'ho monitorial method 
supplies a wide field for exercise of tliat kind v»Jiich har- 
monises v/itli the habits of business: it gives the student 
readiness in the arrangement of thought, and facility in 
expression, by aftbrding him frequent opportunities for 
communicating his ideas without the formality or restraint 
of set composition. His duties as monitor require a perfect 
familiarity with the subject on which he imparts instruc- 
tion—a thorough knowledge of the connection and depen- 
dence of its various parts — a fluency in statement and il- 
lustration — and a readiness in answering unexpected ques- 
tions, and solving unforeseen difhculties. Monitorial in- 
struction cultivates also a manly command of temper, and 
the exercise of a firm but mild control in discharging the 
duties of office; — advantages which can never be enjoyed 
on the common plan of education. 

5. The benefits of the system of mutual instruction are 
not confined, however, to the improvement of the student: 
they extend, with full efTect, to the department of the in- 
strucier. The number of tutors or monitors being greatly 
increased, the aids to instruction would be multiplied, and 
an adequate discharge of duty would be vastly facilitated. 
The burden of mechanical detail would be removed from 
the tutors and the professors: general superintendence 
and instruction in the higher departments only, would be 



APPENDIX. 113 

all that would be required of the permanent instructers; 
who would thus be left free to push their own researches, 
and aid the progress of their students more effectually, in 
the higher departments of science and literature.* This re- 
suit would be not less beneficial to the interests of the col- 
leges, than advantageous to the reputation of the professors. 

6, There are also some considerations of a general na- 
ture, which are equally entitled to attention in estimating 
the benefits of the new method. Of these one is the dimi- 
nution of the expenses of education. Tutors on the present 
arrangement are supported on salaries which, though by 
no means extravagant, amount, in every college to a very 
considerable sum. On the monitorial plan, the office of tu- 
tor or superintending monitor, would devolve, in rotation, 
on all students who were found sufficiently qualified; and 
the furnishing of the requisite qualifications is strictly a 
part of the improved system. If tutors were provided in 
this way, one of two courses might be adopted. The re- 
ward of official service might be made to consist in the 
honor attached to it; or, if compensation of a pecuniary na- 
ture were thought eligible, the benefit would necessarily be 
co-extensive with the degree of application and of merit, 
necessary to constitute the qualifications of a tutor. Such 
an arrangement might aflbrd much assistance to young men 
desirous of enjoying the best opportunities of education, 
but not furnished to a desirable extent, with the means of 
procuring them. 

7. Mutual instruction, if incorporated with the collegi- 
ate course, might aid essentially the progress of improve- 
ment in education, and might be rendered extensively bene- 
ficial to the interests ofsocieiij. It is one of the most impor- 

* The present imperfect state of preparatory education, and (he 
want of mutual instruction in Colleges, often make it necessary for the 
professor to s[)end much time and labor on the elements of his depart- 
ment; — a circumstance which tends greatly to depress the standard of 
literary attainment and character. 

10* 



I 14 APPENDIX. 

tant advantages of this system, that it produces within itscif 
a succession of accompHshed instructors, furnished with 
experience and skill, acquired in the course of their own 
education, and ready to be applied even to their first ef- 
forts in teaching, when adopted as a business. It would 
be useless here to remind our readers of the scanty quali- 
fications with which it has hitherto been customary to set 
up for the office of teacher, or to enlarge on the amount of 
national benefit likely to result from the services of in- 
structors possessed at once of the highest literary and sci- 
entific acquirements, and of the best attainable qualifica- 
tions for the business of teaching. One advantage, how- 
ever, more immediately connected with the apphcation of 
mutual instruction to the course of education embraced in 
colleges, is worthy of a separate attention. In many flour- 
ishing institutions professors may be found possessed of 
high qualifications as to scholarship or acquirements, but 
who are not very successful in the great business of their 
office, — the imparting of instruction. This disadvantage 
is a serious one; and, for the present, it is without reme- 
dy, unless young men can be furnished v/ith proper oppor- 
tunities for acquiring skill in the business of teaching, be- 
fore they are called to discharge the duties of tutors and 
professors. 

To point out particulars in the mdlwd of applying moni- 
torial instruction in colleges^ will hardly be necessary, after 
the minute details given in stating the application of the 
system to schools. Little variation will be required in 
transferring the arrangements from schools to colleges. 

Perhaps it might be found preferable, however, to abol- 
ish entirely a prescribed course for given years of progress. 
No limits ought to be assigned to the advancement of class- 
es. Their progress should be regulated by their proficien- 
cy to any extent. Nor would this increase the labors of the 
teacher. All he would need to do would be to precede and 
personally instruct the most advanced division of his class; 



APPENDIX. 115 

— this division imparting to the others the instruction which 
was received from the professor: this would be done under 
the superintendence of the professor, and as fast as the 
other divisions could advantageously follow. Or, if the 
distinction of classes by different years of a course, should 
still be preserved, the most advanced division of the senior 
class might be employed as monitors for tlie other divisions 
of their own class, during one part of the day, and as super- 
intending monitors for the other classes, during another 
part of the day; while every class furnished acting or su- 
perintending monitors for the one immediately succeeding 
it, in the order of admission. 

The mind of the student would thus, through the whole 
course of study, be brought more immediately under the 
guidance of the professor; as by the monitorial method 
the professor's own views of his particular branch, and 
his method of teaching in it, would be faithfully transmitted 
to the youngest or the most recently admitted of his stu- 
dents. At the same time, the students would reap the 
benefit of four years actual or virtual tuition from the pro- 
fessor; as, on the plan suggested, all the classes would 
fall under the professor's superintendence in the particular 
branch which the arrangements of the college course as- 
signed to his care. The deficiencies of early and prepara- 
tory instruction would thus be better made up, than now; 
and the benefit of a professor's instruction and influence 
would attend the student, from his first entrance on his 
college studies. — That the results actually obtained in this 
way, would be greater than they are on the common plan, 
no impartial person, we think, will be disposed to question. 

Many subordinate means of improvement would, on this 
plan, be more accessible than now. Take the department 
of private reading, for instance. To peruse every good 
author on any one subject, would consume more time than 
the arrangements of college life can afford. But the mon- 
itorial method, if properly introduced, would put every stu- 



116 APPENDIX. 

dent in possession of all the valuable information contained 
in every volume which it might he desirable to read as 
auxiliary to college instruction. This result might be ob- 
tained in the following or in any similar way. Let a given 
author be assigned to each member of a division, to be 
carefully perused within a certain time. At the end of 
this time, let the division assemble in presence of the pro- 
fessor; and let each student give a written or oral abstract 
of the contents of the author which was assigned to him; 
entering particularly into those parts of the volume which 
contain the author's peculiar views on the subject. Let 
the whole division listen, or if thought preferable let them 
take notes, while the abstract is read. The professor 
might, as the student proceeds with his account, hll up 
any omission, or correct any error, which is made. An 
oral explanatory examination might then take place, em- 
bracing the whole division, in a review of the abstract. 
As many authors might be discussed as the hour would 
permit. The great practical value of such exercises will 
at once present itself to intelligent minds,* 

The following extract from Professor Jardine will serve 
to show the practicability and the value of monitorial in- 
struction in colleges: it relates to the method adopted in 
examining and appreciating themes, in the First Philosophy 
Class of the University of Glasgow. 

^This regular method of appreciating the merits of 
themes, in a class of philosophy, has not been much follow- 
ed; and it may perhaps appear still more novel and haz- 
ardous to commit the determination of the merits of the 
themes to the students themselves. Yet according to the 
plan of conducting the business, this method is absolutely 
necessary. With all the time and attention the teacher 
can bestow on so numerous a class, (nearly two hundred,) 
and with all the expedition acquired by long practice, he 

* For fuller details see Jardine's Outline? of Philosophical Education. 



APPENDIX. 117 

cannot possibly accomplish the examination of all the 
themes; and yet, unless they are all regularly examined 
and brought into public notice, the attention of those stu- 
dents whose exercises are overlooked, will soon become 
relaxed, their spirits depressed, and their feelings irritated. 
If our essays pass without notice, they naturally ask, why 
need we give ourselves so much trouble in composing 
them? The whole of the themes, therefore, must be ex- 
amined, or the plan must be given up.' 

' This situation has suggested a method of review of 
which much use is made in the logic (or philosophy) class, 
and which not only removes that objection, but brings with 
it incalculable advantages which cannot be obtained in any 
other way. When the themes are ready for examination, 
the professor makes choice of ten or twelve students, most 
distinguished by their abilities and progress; and to them 
are committed the review of such themes as he cannot 
himself overtake. These are, in the language of the class, 
called examinators, a less assuming title than that of critics 
or censors: to each of them a certain number of themes is 
committed, for which of course they are accountable, and 
which they are required to read over carefully, to examine 
in every part, that they may be able to appreciate their 
merits, and to give in a report in the form of a written 
criticism attached to the theme, and signed by the exami- 
nator. 

'This mode of appreciating the moiit of themes, in a 
philosophy class, may appear unsatisfactory or objection- 
able; but experience has sufficiently shown, that many ad- 
vantages are derived from it. It has always happened, I 
believe, in most public schools, that the more advanced 
students, in some way or other, have given assistance to 
inferior scholars. This method was practised here, long 
before the names of Lancaster or Bell were known to the 
public. The management of such assistance is no doubt 
somewhat delicate; and the advantages connected with it. 



1 1 8 APPENDIX. 

depend a little upon the experience and prudence of the 
teacher. Were not the examinators subject to strict dis- 
cipline and control, the practice, so far from being useful, 
might be extremely pernicious. Ignorance, conceit, par- 
tiality, and petulance on the part of these juvenile assist- 
ants, might give occasion to disappointments, chagrin, and 
irritation, in the minds of such as conceived that their exer- 
cises had been unjustly criticised. J^iit wilh the precautions 
that are taken, these disagreeable effects are altogether -pr event- 
ed. The examinators are publicly and solemnly appointed 
to their office, which is considered as highly honorable; and 
before they enter upon it, they are formally bound to dis- 
charge it according to the instructions which they receive, 
from which they are made to understand that there must 
be no deviation whatever. 

* To give full effect to this method of discipline, one step 
farther has been found necessary. Among so many spirit- 
ed, itidus'tious young men, it may be expected that the au- 
thor ot' the theorem is not always satisfied with the judge- 
ment '■): his examinator; and he may perhaps be suspicious 
of ignorance, or misrepresentation, in the criticism. The 
more the author is conscious of abiilty and industry exert- 
ed in the composition, the more apt will he be to question 
any failt which has been found. To remove, therefore, 
every gr; und of misuiiderstanding. and to give encourage- 
ment to fa'-thor exe.-tions of ingnauity or industry, the 
work of criticism is continued The author of i\\e theme 
is allowed to peruse tiie criticism, and to return it to the 
professor with such explanatory remarks as he may think 
necessary; and on certain more important points, this 
warfare is carried one step further. But the professor 
takes the first opportunity of juitting an end to the contro- 
versy, by interposing his own judgement, to which the par- 
ties cheerfully submit. During this not unfrequently amus- 
ing conflict, new lights and prospects are discovered, v^^hich 
often conduct these juvenile critics to topics beyond their 
original contemplations, ' 



APPENDIX. I 1 9 

' The utility and efficacy of the rules by which these 
themes are conducted, have been demonstrated by long 
experience. Not half a dozen cases have occurred for 
these last hfty years, in which it became necessary to in- 
flict censure for improper discharge of this duty. Mis- 
taken as the examiriatcrs must often be, in their remarks, 
they almost always express their opinion, such as it is, in 
modest and inoffensive terms. When any important dirfer- 
ence has occurred between the author and the examinator, 
the professor has ever found it easy to settle it to their 
mutual satisfaction. Young persons will always prove 
docile and reasonable, when they feel that they are treated 
with candor, with kindness, and without any undue par- 
tialities. Esteem and confidence open the minds of in- 
genuous youth, and keep alive a sense of obligation and of 
duty; at least this has always accorded with my experience. 

' Finally, tl]e method of conducting the themes and criti- 
cisms of the first philosophy class, is highly beneficial, both 
to the authors and examinators; and has been found, from 
experience, an excellent expedient for calling forth the in- 
tellectual energies of the student. There are few situa- 
tions in which young men can be placed more favorable to 
application and industry. Their interest and honor com- 
bine, w ith the exhortations of the teacher in disposing them 
to an animated discharge of their duty. The authors of 
the themes compose them under the impression of their 
being subject to a strict review; the examinators employ 
their utmost eflbrts to discover imperfections and defects; 
and the teacher himself must acknowledge, that, by thus 
watching over and directing this intercourse between his 
students, he has deriv^ed much experimental instruction in 
the proper manner of condiicting the business of educa- 
tion.' 



120 APPENDIX. 

It may be worth while to add that in the Greek and Lat- 
in classes of Glasgow college, (the former under the care 
of professor Young, and the latter under that of professor 
Richardson,) the system of mutual instruction was virtually 
adopted in their methods of conducting recitations and of 
preparing for them. In the higher and harder authors, the 
professors themselves would give the 'prelection', or initia- 
tory reading; but in authors of an easier class, the more dil- 
igent and competent students of the senior year were em- 
ployed in prelection. If an error occured in translation or 
in parsing, another student would be called to correct it, 
if there was still an error, the passage was put to a third 
student; and so on, till the correct rendering or parsing 
was given. Sometimes the professor himself would suggest 
a happier translation in a given case. While the senior 
students were reading, the younger class followed the read- 
ers mentally as they parsed and construed; the members 
of this class being expected, with the aid of proper diligence 
at home, to come prepared on the following day, to recite 
the same lesson. 

The professor of Greek sometimes adopted a similar 
method with the elements of thut language, and with the 
subject of prosody; the more advanced students undergo- 
ing an exercise in review, and the younger receiving in- 
struction and explanation, on the lesson of the following 
day. 

Both of these classes enjoyed for professors, men of 
high eminence as scholars and instructers; and with neither 
of them was the method an innovation or a temporary ex- 
pedient: it was then and still is, in most, if not all, of the 
colleges of Scotland, the standing method of instruction, 
which has been found successful for ages; and in which 
an early attention co practical instruction, had, in fact, an- 
ticipated the improvements of a moro modern era. 



APPENDIX. 



121 



The limits of this Manual will not admit of farther dis- 
cussion on this subject; and the view now taken of it is too 
cursory and brief for the merits of the question. Small as 
this volume is, however, the importance of the subject 
seemed to demand that a view should be taken of the ap- 
plication of the improved system to the whole course of ed- 
ucation; as a proper harmony in the methods adopted in 
the various stages and departments of instruction, is equally 
essential to their perfection, and to the general progress 
of improvement. 

In the suggestions which have been necessarily inter- 
woven with the application of mutual instruction to col- 
leges, the author would be sorry to be understood as ad- 
vancing charges of deficiency in those who conduct these 
institutions in the United States. 1 he present condition 
of most of the colleges of this country, appears to be high- 
ly creditable to those who superintend them. Improve- 
ment, however, is, in all cases where it is practicable, a 
desirable thing; and in the present instance it seems at- 
tainable with peculiar ease and certainty, in the way which 
is indicated by successful experiment. The compiler of 
this Appendix aims no higher than to aid in attracting 
attention to this channel of improvement in education, — a 
subject so important to the best interests of this country. 

The following sentiment is from the pen of the enlighten- 
ed and judicious individual whose name stands so intimate- 
ly connected with recent improvements in education.* 

* I am not surprised at the increasing zeal for the im- 
provement of education in America. It is of all others the 
country where that was to be expected; and as the people 
are not fettered and trammelled by the ancient academical 
institutions of Europe, — many of which are obviously un- 
siiited to the views of modern times, — they have nothing 
to impede arrangements dictated only by a conviction of 
what is fit and useful.* 

* Professor Jardine. 
11 



BOOK STOHS. 

FOR 

SCHOOLS AND LITERARY INSTITUTIONS. 

Wait, Greene, Si Company, have opened a 
store of the above description, to which theysohcit 
the attention of the trade, of teachers, and of the 
public generally. 

A depository such as is now offered, will, it is presumed, 
be of important service to education, by facilitating the efforts 
of parents and teachers, as well as those of the publishers of 
works used in instruction. The assortment of books will con- 
sist of the most approved publications in each department. — 
None will be admitted but such as are in extensive use, or 
are recommended by eminent literary men and instructers. — 
To insure this advantage, the names of individuals, institutions, 
and publications, under whose sanction each work appears, 
will always be given; and where opinions or recommendations 
are expressed, these will be fully stated, that teachers and 
booksellers from other places, may be enabled to make their 
purchases, with confidence and with success. Particular atten- 
tion will be given to the selection of the best books adapted to 
the use of common schools, and especially of books used in 
monitorial instruction. 

To publishers there is thus offered an advantageous place of 
deposit for their approved works — to teachers and to semina- 
ries in the city, as well as in the country, the benefits of a 
selection of the best books in their respective departments - 



II ADV"ERTlSEMEi\TS. 

rjrid to parents ll:e opportunity of purchasing with a compat- 
alive certainty of promoting the improvement of Iheir children. 

The establishment will embrace all useful works which are 
accessible, in the various branches of moral and intellectual 
culture. Ek)oks designed for the use of young persons, are not 
always ha|)pily adapted to the objects which it is desirable 
such works should promote. Publishers are not commonly in 
possession of sulTicient leisure, and other opportunities, for de- 
ciding on suitable selections; and parents seldom enjoy the 
advantage of perusing beforehand the books which they put 
into the hands of their children. The bookstore to which the 
attention of the public is now solicited, is intended to form a 
depository for the most approved works, of every kind, for 
young readers ; and, as such books only will be admitted, an 
opportunity will be offered for extending their circulation, and 
promoting the interests of their publishers. 

The present undertaking will, it is hoped, commend itself 
to the patronage of all teachers who are desirous of receiving 
the best aid arising from good books, and of promoting, in the 
most effectual way, the progress of their pupils. Every ex- 
ertion will be used to render the establishment equally ac- 
ceptable io parents who are desirous that their children should 
enjoy, to the best advantage, the peculiar facilities for im- 
provement which the press is at the present day so copious- 
ly furnishing. 

Connected with the above establishment will be a good 
assortment of Stationary, &:c. ; and the terms on which every 
article will be offered, will be found satisfactory to reasonable 
expectations. 

1'he American Journal of Education will, in future, be pub- 
lished atthe above store ; attached to which will be a Reading 
J^oom, designed for the accommodation of Teachers. 
Boston, Oct. 1st, 1826. 

*^* Publisliers de!-irous of embracing this opportunity of depositing 
their works on coD)mis.sion, are requested to forward immediately a list 
of such books, accompanied by their terms. Letters, ^c. Vvill meet 
with immediate attention. The^ may be addressed to Wait, Greene, 
and Company, Court-street. 



SCHOOIa BOOli B'somn^ 

Court Street, Boston. 

Wait, Greene, & Company, have for sale the 
following books for Schools and Academies, viz : 

FOR CLASSES 17* SPELLING AXD READING. 

A Standard Spelling Book, or the Scholar's 
Guide to an accurate Pronunciation of the English language ; 
accompanied with easy, famih"ar, and progressive Reading 
Lessons Designed as an Introduction to the use of Walker's 
Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language, 
Compiled for the Use of Schools. By James H. Sears. Re- 
vised Edition. . 

Exlraclfrom tJte American Journal of Education. 
' Of the s-iiccess of this school book we have no doubt. The utmost 
care has been bestowed on its arrangement. \n several other parlicu- 
lars which our limits Avili not permit us to mention, it possesses equal 
merit. The internal character of the book corresponds, in all respects, 
to the neatness and care of its execution.' 

A Spelling Book of the English Language; or, 
the American Tutor's Assistant, — intended particularly for the 
use of Common Schools. The pronunciation being adapted to 
the mucli apjtroved principles of Walker. By E'lihu F. Mar- 
shall. 

' The chief advantage proposed in tliis volume is an abstract of 
Walker's princif)!es of pronunciation, with directions to the teacher for 
the method of using them in practical exercises. This part of Mr. 
MarshalTs book is one vv'iich certainly will be found very useful, and 
especially to iiistracters, who have not previously given a systematic 
i^tlenlion to pronunciation. 

1* 



IV ADVEI^TISEMENTS. 

The scholar who uses this spelling book, is furnished, in audition to 
the usual quantity of reading lessons, with a useful collection of words 
accented and explained in the form of a dictionary. » 

Journal of Education. 

The Rational Guide to Reading and Orthog- 
raphy; being an attempt to improve the arrangement of' 
Words in English Spelling Books, and to adapt the Reading 
Lessons to the comprehension of those for whom they are in- 
tended. By William B. Fowle, Instructer of the Monitorial 
School, Boston. 

[Adopted in the primary schools of Boston.] 

' The matter and the arrangement of this little volume possess much 
originality ; both are happily adapted to the capacity of young children, 
and are excellently suited to aid a gradual and sure progress in the 
principles of reading. 

The reading lessons which are interspersed with the columns, are 
simple and intelligible; they are all written in a very interesting style ; 
and many of them convey useful moral instruction. 

From a pretty extensive acquaintance with similar school-books is- 
sued from the English press, we are enabled to make a comparison 
which is highly favorable to Mr. Fowle's. There is no work of the 
kind, as far as we know, which is equally well adapted to the use of be- 
ginners in reading and spelling ; or which an instructer may use with so 
much advantage and pleasure.' Journal of Education. 

Also Murrav's and Webster's, and other 

Spelhng Books. 



FOR CLASS tS IN READING. 

The Pronouncing Introduction. Introduction 

to tiie English Reader ; or, a Selection of Pieces, in Prose 
and Poetry ; calculated to Improve the younger classes of 
learners in reading ; and to imbue their minds with the love 
of virtue. To which are added, rules and observations for 
assisting Children to read with propriety. By Lindley Mur- 
ray, to which, by the aid of a Key, is scrupulously applied, 
Mr, Walker's pronunciation of the Classical proper names, 
and of numerous other words, dilBcult to pronounce, with an 
Appendix, consisting of words selected from the reading les- 
^^o^s, vv'ith definiiions. By Israel Alger, Jun. A. M. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. V 

The Pronouncing English Reader. The Eng- 

ish Reader : or, Pieces in Prose and Poetry, selected from the 
best writers. Designed to assist young persons to read with 
propriety and effect ; to improve their language and senti- 
ments ; and to inculcate some of the most important principles 
of piety and virtue. With a few preliminary observations on 
the principles of good reading. By Lindley Murray. To 
which, by the aid of a Key, is scrupulously applied, Mr. Walk- 
er's Pronunciation of the Classical Proper names, and of nu- 
merous other words, difficult to pronounce. By Israel Alger, 
Jun. A. M. 

* These books are valuable contributions to a general and extensive 
reformation in the style of reading. The department of pronunciation 
is treated with a rigor and closeness of attention which it has never 
before received. Every word in which any mistake could be made, is 
carefully and distinctly marked. 

If this edition of Murray's reading books should obtain, as we hope 
it will, the exclusive currency in our schools in town and country, it 
would take but a few years to produce a uniform and correct pronun- 
ciation throughout the United States.' Journal of Education. 

Richardson's American Reader. — The Ameri- 
can Reader, a selection of Lessons for Reading and Speaking, 
wholly from American authors, embracing a great variety of 
entertaining subjects of history, biography, divinity, laws, 
natural and moral philosophy, and of other branches of use- 
ful and elegant learning. — Furnishing numerous Specimens of 
American Eloquence : From the Presidential Chair, the Head 
Quarters of the Military Commander, the Seat in Congress, 
the Pulpit on various occasions, the Bench of the Judge, the 
Bar, Stations of Literary Honor, the Seats of the Muses, and 
from the Shades of Private Lite. — Containing Rules for the 
proper use of the Pauses for graceful and persuasive Pronuncia- 
tion, and for appropriate and impressive Gesture; to improve 
the Scholar in Reading and Speaking, while enriching the mind 
with religious, virtuous, and useful Knowledge, designed for 
the use of Schools. By Joseph Richardson, A. M. 

* As to the general merits of this book there can be no question. The 
subjects of the lessons are judiciously selected ; and the style is general- 
ly creditable to the compiler's taste, as well as to the talents of the 
writers from whom the selection is made. 



VI ADVERTISEMENTS 

Useful information and sound moral instruction characterise most of 
the pieces contained in this volume ; and the names of their respective 
authors are a guaranty that no sentiment is inculcated, but what is wor- 
thy of an early place in the minds of those who are advancing to take 
their places in life as American citizens.' Journal of Education, 

Friend of Youth ; or a new selection of Les- 
sons, in Prose and Verse, for Schools and Families, to imbue 
the Young with sentiments of Piefy, Humanity, and universal 
Benevolence. By Noah Worcester, D. D. Second edition. 

* A moral reading book was much wanted for the use of schools and 
families ; and the Friend of Youth seems excellently suited to the pur- 
pose. It teaches by example, rather than by precept. It contains nu- 
merous illustrations, from history, and other sources, of the virtues 
which it aims to inculcate. That this is the most successful, as well as 
the most interesting method of instructing the young, is a truth familiar 
to all attentive parents and teachers.' Journal of Education. 

Sacred Extracts from the Scriptures of the 

Old and New Testaments, for the more convenient attainment 
of a knowledge of the inspired writers. For the use of schools. 
Second Edition. 

' That the juvenile reader of the sacred volume needs a guide to aid 
him in the selection of such parts as are intelligible to him and are best 
adapted to instruct and improve him, is matter of common observation. 
All parents and teachers, however, have not equal time and opportuni- 
ties for assisting their children in this way. The present volume is one 
therefore which seems calculated for extensive usefulness. 

Any commendation of ours would be superfluous after mentioning 
that the book bears the recommendation of such names as the late Pres- 
ident Dwight, Dr. IMorse, and Dr. Nott.' Journal of Education. 

The American First Class Book. 

[Used in the public Schools in Boston.] 

Blake's HistoriccJ Reader : Strong's Common 
Reader, and other Books in the same depart- 
ment. 

FOR CLASSES IN GRAMMAR. 

Murray's Abridgement and larger works. — 
Fowle's Enj^lish Grammar, — Parkliurst's do. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. Vll 

FOR CLASSES IN RHF.TORIC, 

Blairs Lectures. — Russell's Grammar of 
Composition. [See p. ix.] — Campbell's Rhetoric. 

FOR CLASSKS IN ARI THMETJC, &C. 

Colburirs Works. — Robinson's Elements of 
Arithmetic. — Pike's Arithmetic improved, and 
other books in the same department. 

FOR CLASSKS IN GEOGRArHY. 

Smjlie's Geography and Atlas. — Woodbridge's 
Geography. — Goodrich's Geography. Worces- 
ter's Geography and Atlas, with other works of 
the same class. 

FOR CLASSES IN HISTORY. 

Blair's Outlines of Chronology, Ancient and 

iTiodcrn ; being an introduction to the study of history. For 
the use of schools. 

' This is a very instructive and interesting exhibition of chronology, 
and is intended, we observe, for the introduction to a series of elemen- 
tary Works on history, such as may be advantageously used by young 
learners. The whole series is to be chiefly original ; though modelled 
on the plan of Blair, and designated by his name. 

The compiler will, we hope, add to his list a volume on the United 
States, and one on the state of Connecticut. 

A revij^ed edition of the volume on chronology, is, we understand, in 
preparation. ' journal of Education, 

Outline of Bible History. 

A History of the American Revolution ; in- 
tended as a reading book for schools. By Samuel Williams, 
LL. D. 

' The idea of collecting Dr. William's papers on the revolution, and 
forming them into a school-book, was, we think, a huppy and judicious 
one. The events wuich are thu-< detd^iied for a moment from the 
body of American history, are well entiUed to a separate attention ; — 
Ihey form, in fact, of themselves, an interesting whole, highly enter- 



Vlll ADVERTISEMENTS. 

taining and instructive. This useful volume is one which, we hope, will 
be adopted in every school. The style of the work is chaste and correct, 
intelligible to children, and captivating by its natural simplicity School- 
books like this, are admirably adapted to cherish a manly independence 
of spirit, and an enlightened patriotism. They furnish the means of in- 
spiring the mind- of youth with an early interest in the institutions of 
their country, and with a knowledge of their duties as citizens.' 

Goodrich's History of the United States — 
Tytler's History. — Goldsmith's Greece. — Gold- 
smith's Rome. 



The following works on other branches of ed- 
ucation, may also be had as above. 

A Grammar of Chemistry, adapted to the use 

of schools and private students, by familiar illustrations and 
experiments. By J. L. Comsfock. M. D. With numerous 
engravings on wood. Second edition. 

[Recommended by Siliiman's Journal of Science.] 
* With regard * * * * to the adaptation of the book to the purposes 
of instruction, we feel at liberty to express our opinion more fully ; and 
we are happy to say that, in this respect, it is entitled to our best com- 
mendation.' 

Blair's Elements of Arts and Sciences. — Le- 
gendre's Geometry. — Paley's Natural Theology. 
' — Paley's Moral Philosophy. 

Wait, Greene, and Company have for sale, the 
following works, (published by A. H. Maltby &: 
Co. New Haven, Conn.) 

Adam's Latin Grammar abridged, and ar- 
ranged in a course of practical lessons, adapted (o the capacity 
of young learners. By William Russell. 2d Edition. 

This Grammar is designed chiefly for beginners at an early 
age. — But as it embraces copious explanations and interroga- 
tory exercises, it may be a useful guide to insiructers. It is 
also peculiarly adapted to the use of monitors^ on the system 



ADVERTISEMENTS. IX 

oi' mutual instruction. To young ladies who sludy the Latin 
language it will furnish an intelligible and pleasing view of the 
matter usually comprehended in Gramnciars. 

Mr. Russell, 

Your abridgement of the Latin Grammar, is, in our view, judiciously 
executed; and, by its simplicity and its numerous illustrations, seems 
well adapted to the class of learners for whose use it is intended. 

J. L. KiNGSLEY, Prof of the Greek and Latin languages. 
C. A. Goodrich, Prof, of Rhetoric and Oratory. 
Yale College. 
Extracts from a Review in the U. S. Lit. Gasettc^for Oct. 1824. 

* Nothing can be more grateful to a reviewer, than to be occasion- 
ally released from the necessity of expressing disapprobation and cen- 
sure, and allowed fair scope for his disposition to applaud a competent 
and faithful author.' * Mr. Russell has composed a Latin Grammar, 
in such a manner as to make it intelligible to those who study it.' ' Be- 
fore we saw his book, we were quite familiar with the principles by 
which he was guided in composing it ; but we feared it would be long 
before we should find an author of sufficient assiduity and skill, to ap- 
ply them to the study of the Latin language.' 

Extract from a notice in the North American Review for Oct. 1824. 

* Simplicity and a clear arrangement are the points chiefly to be 
"kept in view, and in these particulars this abridgement seems to be an 
improvement on the larger work, and to be well fitted for the young 
pupil at his first entrance on the study of the Latin language.' 

A Grammar of Composition, including a series 

of Lessons in Rhetorical Analysis, and six introductory courses 
of Composition. 

The first part of this work contains a review of those principles o' 
rhetoric which are more immediately applicable to composition. A few 
additions and alterations are extracted from Fosbrooke's Grammar of 
Rhetoric, and Angus's English Grammar. The second part prosecutes 
the plan of analysis adopted by Professor Jardine, in his occasional in- 
terrogatory exercises. Part third is a fuller developement of the method 
observed in Walker's Teacher's Assistant. 

Brevity has been very rigidly observed in the compilation of this 

work. The author had no intention of composing a formal Treatise on 

he subject. His design was merely to furnish a few practical hints, the 

ctual value of which must depend on the diligence of the pupil and the 

auperintendence of the teacher. 

Extract from anoticein the North American Review^ for Oct. 184. 

* this compend is perspicuous, and particularly designed for acade- 
mies and schools of the higher order,' 



e< / M. Y J'^ 



X ADVERTISEMENTS. * « 

Extract from a letter^ addressed lo the author^ by George Jardine^ A. J/., 
Professor of Logic and Belles Lcltresin the University of Glasgow^ and ^ 
author of ike Outlines of Philosophical Education. j 

' The Grammar of Composition is a most useful work, and contains i 
a manual of instructions very important to pupils beginning to compose. ! 
You have great merit in coridensing so many sound practical rules with- \ 
in such a narrow compass. I 



Wait, Greene, and Company have in press. ; 

Lessons in Declamation; embracing the nior^ j 

imjjortant Rules of Elocution, and the Principles of Gesture.— j 
By William Russell, Teacher of Elocution, Boston. ■ 

This book contains directions for the assistance of teachers, ' 
and is also adapted to the use of pupils in schools and acade- ; 
mies ; it is introductory to a work, designed for colleges and j 
professional institutions, which will speedily be published by j 
the Rev. Dr. Porter, of the Theological Seminary at Andover. j 

Jardine's Outlines of Philosophical Education. \ 
From the second Glasgow edition, with Additions and other ; 
Improvements by the Author. i 

Extract from a recent letter of the author to the editor of the Amer- i 
ican Journal of Edu-ation, Ml' — referring to the second edition of the ■ 
above work — ' contains some additions and, I hope, improvements — in j 
particular, a su^'gestion of extending the academical course to several j 
branches of knowledge, of great imporfance ; hut which are little at- j 
tended to in the ordinary course of academical education. 

Glasgow College, 12' May, 18^6. GEORGE JARDINE.' j 

Wait, Greene, and Corasvanj, will keep on hand | 
works which are noticed in the American Journal 1 
of Education, and books adapted to monitorial; 
instruction, — particularly such as are used in the] 
school tano-ht by Mr. Fowlc. ] 

Bibles, Blank Books, and other articles of Sla-' 
tionary, for schools and common use. * 

ALSO 

A variety of Juvenile Publications. j 






